Vast quantities……but are they available?  Estimates of global resources of natural gas hydrates range form 100,000 to almost 300 million TCF.  Interest in hydrates will increase as natural gas resources are depleted.  USGS working to understand hydrate origin, occurrence, and factors affecting stability.  We don’t know yet enough about hydrates to know if they exist in sufficient concentrations to be economic, nor do we know enough about the production technology.
	Examples of USGS involvement in gas hydrate research:
	1. Arctic permafrost regions- Alaska North Slope and Canada’s Mackenzie Delta (Winter 2002)
	2. “Core on the floor”-   an exciting, successful research cruise, 60 miles offshore Oregon, area known as Hydrate Ridge (summer of 2002), onboard The Resolution, a research vessel and the mainstay of the Ocean Drilling Program, run by Texas A & M
	3. Core sampling from the Gulf of Mexico deepwaters, offshore Louisiana ( summer of 2002), 25 giant piston cores taken onboard the Marion Dufresne research vessel to determine if there are significant gas hydrate accumulations in resevoir sediments away from faults.  Core samples are being stored at the ODP facility at Texas A&M.  Results confirm the presence of gas hydrate in vent-related near-seabed sediments, however infer that hydrate isn’t common in adjacent sedimentary basins in northern GOM.
	4.  Onland wells at Mallik (Can) and Japanese work in ocean basins are leading to better understanding of hydrate producibility – still much to learn.