The officials with the company and the DOE said in interviews, that it is the logical next step
BP Exploration Alaska Inc. annoinced drilling a test well on the North Slope to confirm the presence of hydrates around producing oil fields, although no decision on the well has been made.
The officials with the company and the DOE said in interviews, that planning is underway and it is the logical next step in a joint BP-U.S. Department of Energy research program on hydrates.
The test well would be what is known as a stratigraphic well that is drilled to gather geologic information to plan future drilling rather than to actually discover oil and gas.
Hydrates are underground structures of frozen water and methane that exist under certain temperature and pressure conditions.
