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Eel River Basin Natural Gas and Fracking in Humboldt

by Tomas DiFiore
There is an enormous natural gas basin off the Humboldt Coast. Exploration has already begun. I think the companies holding the leases are holding back on production contracts with drillers including frackers, and are awaiting the outcome of DOGGR Final Regulations January 1, 2015 and the SB 4 requirements along with the WSPA who-do voodoo man, Governor Jerry Brown's insistence that wells be grouped for the EIR, and then let's get drilling!
800_eelriverbasin_natgashydrates.jpg
More Counties In California Ban The Frac King

With the signing into law of SB 4 in September, DOGGR and the oil industry are jumping over themselves with interim period giveaways. And the elected leadership of counties throughout the State are being taken to task. Santa Cruz, Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt... each county approach can be different. Santa Cruz County is in the process of extending it's Moratorium on Fracking.

In Mendocino, Sonoma and Humboldt Counties, Petitions are respectfully asking the Boards of Supervisors for moratoriums on fracking to outright bans on fracking.

Both Mendocino and Humboldt Counties have vast reservoirs of oil or natural gas hydrates most of which are just offshore, but development is already underway onshore with 12,000 acres under lease to tap the Eel River Basin for Natural Gas Hydrates. At least one exploratory well has reached approximately 9,500 feet depth, and producing zones are expected at 4,000 to 6,000 feet and at 9,400 feet. Production wells will employ “fracture stimulation techniques”.

In the southern onshore region of the Eel River Basin, geologically recent west-east-striking faults and folds are superimposed on top of older north- to northwest-trending structures formed as a result of Gorda-North American plate convergence (Clarke, 1987; Nilsen and Clarke, 1987). Seismologically, this is a very active region, and most earthquake hypocenters occur at depths of less than 20 km (Smith and Knapp, 1980).

Anticipating Production
Neither Santa Cruz County nor Mendocino County are currently 'producing counties' thus making it easier to legally pass local ordinances in the unincorporated areas of the counties.

In southern Mendocino County, the Point Arena Basin holds enormous quantities of oil.
90% of the Eel River Basin in Humboldt County is Offshore

I personally no longer think that the Mendocino Coast remains protected from offshore oil. Well maybe offshore oil development and the onshore facilities that support that offshore oil development. That's how the protections read. Local ordinances in the General Plan of Mendocino and the Coastal Element might not adequately cover onshore development of natural gas zones, or access to offshore basins for extraction of Natural Gas Hydrates.

In the 80's un-associated or non-associated gas fields (not associated with oil), were not even considered. As recently as March 21, 2013 DOGGR would not use the term in presentations throughout the State, and dismissed queries amid discussion regarding the locations and production levels of non-associated gas wells. A gas field is generally comprised of a number of wells.

There is an enormous natural gas basin off the Humboldt Coast. Exploration has already begun. I think the companies holding the leases are holding back on production contracts with drillers including frackers, and are awaiting the outcome of DOGGR Final Regulations January 1, 2015 and the SB 4 requirements along with the WSPA who-do voodoo man, Jerry Brown's insistence that wells be grouped for the EIR, and then let's get drilling!

Deviant Under Balanced Horizontal Directional Drilling and Forced Unitization

Since the advent of directional drilling, oil companies have eyed the oil and (or) gas reservoirs under State waters and tried to find access to them from onshore or from Federal waters.

Wednesday, November 3, 2004
"Tight Gas Sands of the Eel River Basin, California." Jere Jay, INNEX Energy
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/pttc/archive/nov3-2004-unconventional.htm
Ellison Miles Geotechnology Institute at Brookhaven College, Dallas Geological Society, Dallas Geophysical Society, SIPES Dallas Chapter, Fort Worth Geological Society, SIPES Fort Worth Chapter, PTTC Texas Region, and Southern Methodist University – Institute of Earth and Man Unconventional Reservoirs Symposium


Let's visit the online the Humboldt State University Library, Energy and Mineral Resources Section: "This research guide lists both print and Internet maps that cover northwestern California. The table of contents below lists maps by theme and environment."

But there are no entries for Energy and Mineral Resources. The only listing with no entries! Seems odd with all the interest in Natural Gas Hydrates and leases.
“Energy & Mineral Resources”
http://library.humboldt.edu/infoservices/staff/rls/geospatial/nwcalmaps.htm#energy

Yet, up river, the California Eel River basin drilling nears
06/19/2007
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2007/06/california-eel-river-basin-drilling-nears.html

Three or more wells could be drilled later this year in northwestern California's remote Eel River basin southeast of Eureka.

Bakersfield, Calif.-based Foothills Resources Inc., which is averaging 395 Mcfd of gas from two wells in Grizzly Bluff field in Humboldt County, said a rig is expected to arrive in mid-August in the basin, where the company shot 13 sq miles of 3D seismic early this year (OGJ Online, Jan. 12, 2007).

Foothills also accumulated a controlling leasehold position 7 miles northwest of Grizzly Bluff near abandoned Table Bluff gas field, where it has a high-quality prospect supported by a direct hydrocarbon indicator. The company is integrating its geologic mapping with 2D seismic and data from wells drilled in the area.

Company Press Releases show:
The GB 4 well reached a total depth of 9,530 feet on March 24, 2008, after which electric logs were run and production casing was cemented in the hole. A comprehensive testing program commenced on April 15th.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/foothills-resources-inc-announces-well-tests-in-california-57458537.html

BAKERSFIELD, Calif., June 13 Foothills Resources, Inc. today announced the results of production testing on its GB 4 well in the Eel River Basin in Humboldt County, California.

Since 2006, Foothills has acquired additional oil and gas leases in the Eel River Basin, and currently has interests ranging from 70% to 75% in approximately 12,000 additional gross leasehold acres over seven prospects with no depth restrictions.

And What Are Tight Gas Sands?
The term tight gas sands refers to low permeability sandstone reservoirs that produce primarily dry natural gas. A tight gas reservoir is one that cannot be produced at economic flow rates or recover economic volumes of gas unless the well is stimulated by a large hydraulic fracture treatment and/or produced using horizontal wellbores (Holditch, 2006).

The development of many tight gas sand fields that are productive today began in the 1970s.
Drilling accelerated in the 1980s due, in part, to tax credits that encouraged the development of low permeability reservoirs. By the 1990s, advances in 3-D seismic, horizontal drilling, and hydraulic fracture stimulation allowed wells to be placed and completed more effectively, increasing their rates and reserves. In the 2000s, rising gas prices coupled with large investments by growing companies drove-up rig counts and resulted in tens of thousands of wells being drilled.
http://emd.aapg.org/technical_areas/tightGas.cfm

Now I don't know why academia didn't share this next one! “Our studies show abundant subsurface gas... Analysis of seismic data in the Eel River basin shows that although natural gas in this area is abundant, it is regionally variable and controlled more by stratigraphy than by structure. The abundant gas detected in this basin may affect sediment strength and slope stability, altering both seafloor morphology and sediment transport.”
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a348384.pdf

ONR Grant N000014-96-1-0361 Final Technical Report:
Seafloor Geomorphology, Gas and Fluid Flow, and Slope Failure on the
Southern Cascadia Continental Margin; Daniel L. Orange
Deptartment of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

In 2005, a US panel backed offshore gas drilling
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2005-09-29/other-energy-headlines-30-september-2005#

Sacramento Bee
September 29, 2005
Two areas off California's coast could be exploited quickly if the bill passes.
WASHINGTON: A House committee voted Wednesday to end long-standing moratoriums that have prevented opening new areas off the coast of California and other states to natural gas development. If enacted into law, the provision could immediately open for development the Eel River basin in Northern California and the smaller Pitas Point gas field in the Santa Barbara Channel.

The federal Minerals Management Service estimates that there is some 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in those deposits, mostly in the Eel River area.

The Humboldt General Plan lists Natural Gas Resources in Humboldt County
http://www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/civica/bids/inc/blobfetch.asp?blobID=3438
There are natural gas deposits present in Humboldt County. Active gas wells are concentrated in the Tompkin Hills Gas Field. Of the County’s 39 gas wells, 31 are currently producing and 8 are considered shut in, meaning they cannot produce gas at their current depths and are sealed off in order to maintain the pressure on remaining deposits. In 2000,net gas production was 1,337,796 million cubic feet (mcf); this represents a 31 percent decrease in gas production since 1992, when net production was 1,927,787 mcf.

Also in 1992, 34 gas wells were in production and 5 were shut in. Humboldt County contains three inactive oil wells and has not produced oil in at least the past ten years. FOREXCO, Inc. of Greensboro, NC, recently secured a 20-year lease (through 2022) to engage in the exploration of natural gas in Humboldt County on the east and west side of the Eel River near Alton to determine potential natural gas reserves. As part of this lease, they have the rights to the exploration and operation of up to five previously developed well sites that have the potential for up to five wells per site. FOREXCO has proposed to construct a natural gas collection and transportation system that would cross the Eel River and interconnect with the existing gas sales delivery point at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) natural gas meter station in Alton. The pipeline will be designed to operate at a maximum allowable operation pressure of 1,360 pounds per square inch (psi). The design of the project allows for greater capacity for possible future development of natural gas reserves west of the Eel River.
http://www.co.humboldt.ca.us/planning/gp/meetings/natl_res/nr_report.asp

But the Humboldt State Library has not a single resource available under Minerals and Energy!


North Coast Moratorium: NO OFFSHORE OIL Point Arena Basin, Mendocino County
But the bulk of natural gas reserves off the California coast, estimated at some 17 trillion cubic feet, are in areas where they coexist with oil deposits, and therefore can not be touched unless the state were to specifically agree to open those federal waters to oil drilling.

The last proposed lease sale in 1987, thwarted by the moratorium, would have opened 6.5 million acres off the North Coast. Off Mendocino and Humboldt counties, the tracts for sale lay from 3 to 27 miles offshore, and some of the 24 planned platforms at 300 feet tall and each with dozens of wells, would have been visible from land.

Tourism and commercial fisheries would have been affected, according to an environmental review then, while as many as 240 new oil tanker trips from Fort Bragg and Eureka to San Francisco Bay refineries were predicted under the full development scenario. The probability of one or more spills occurring would be 94 percent for accidents involving 1,000 barrels or more, according to documents.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/28/MN4G14QMVE.DTL#ixzz0WKVRptL0


And Humboldt is seismologically, a very active region. Most onshore earthquake hypocenters occur at depths of less than 20 km.
Gorda-North American plate convergence at the Mendocino Triple Junction.
http://www.academia.edu/665848/THE_EFFECTS_OF_TRIPLE_JUNCTION_INTERACTIONS_AT_CONVERGENT_PLATE_MARGINS

Goldman Sachs and PGE though, almost did accomplish a lease agreement for offshore development within State waters. Thwarted again by citizen actions.

On August 26, 2008 David Gurney spoke at the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District meeting.
http://humboldtbaywatch.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/an-important-message-from-david-gurney/#more-287

“It is apparent that Humboldt Bay is about to be blindsided by oil and gas development.”

“Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has staked claim to a 136 sq. mi. area of ocean right outside the mouth of the Humboldt Bay. They also have permits for 68 square miles off the Mendocino Coast, and are apparently in negotiation with the Minerals Management Service to lease even more large tracts of ocean, just outside of these huge areas.

These tracts correspond to offshore oil drilling zones, that were under negotiation for Oil and Gas Lease/Sale # 91 back in 1988.”

“PG&E does not need such huge areas of ocean to test wave energy devices, and instead has the potential to “site sit” these locations, until such a time that the leases can be converted to natural gas and oil drilling permits. It says so in their permit documents.”

“Also documented is the fact that P.G.& E. has approached as two companies as consultants on their wave energy projects: Black & Veatch and CH2M Hill. Both are world-wide conglomerates engaged in natural gas and oil development.”

“Furthermore, Goldman Sachs has offered to lease and develop the marine terminal of Humboldt Bay, supposedly for the benefit of commerce and tourism. But Goldman Sachs is heavily involved in speculation on oil futures, and is in fact one of the major players in such speculation, and thus could have a serious conflict of interest in what is best for the Bay and the citizens of Eureka.”

What is the significance of access to the Eel River Basin offshore Natural Gas Hydrates?

Methane (Natural Gas) Hydrates in offshore subduction zone sediments hold the world's largest reserves of Natural Gas. More than all combined known global shale gas reserves. Not all coastlines share this geologic feature. The Eel River Basin (offshore) is important enough to be shown on the Global Inventory of Methane Deposits.
http://geology.com/articles/methane-hydrates/

Local Control in General Law Counties
Join us as we petition our respective County Board of Supervisors, to Ban Fracking (for all the reasons we already know), and let's take the Precautionary Principle to heart. Legal processes to petition local governments are currently ongoing in different counties taking different forms from moratoriums to bans, General Plan Ordinances to Ballot Initiatives.
Several counties have already succeeded.

A Fracking Moratorium may be on the November 2014 Butte County ballot.
http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_24731172/group-is-working-butte-county-fracking-moratorium

12152013
“A group has begun a campaign for a moratorium on the practice, and plans to start collecting signatures. Citizens Action Network, critical of the new rules for not being strong enough, and for amendments that weakened the package of regulations are taking the basic position that we can't rely on federal and state people to protect the local area, We are uncomfortable with the laxness of the language in SB4, said Joni Stellar, media coordinator for CAN.”


This holiday season, give the gift that keeps on giving.
To sign a Northern Coastal Counties petition please select from one of the following options!


To be delivered to The California State House, The California State Senate, and Governor Jerry Brown - Ocean Protection Coalition (OPC) Fort Bragg
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ocean-protection-coalition/?source=search


To be delivered to The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
South Mendocino Coast
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/ban-fracking-in-mendocino-county-1


To be delivered to The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
Potter Valley
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/ban-fracking-in-mendocino-county?sp_ref=13366667.4.822.e.0.2&source=mailto_sp


To be delivered to The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/tell-the-humboldt-county-board-of-supervisors-ban-fracking-now


Have a happy safe holiday time.
Sincerely
Tomas DiFiore

Steam Injection Is Literally Global Warming.
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/
800_hf70_text.jpg
In southern Mendocino County, the offshore Point Arena Basin holds enormous quantities of oil. In Humboldt County, 90% of the Eel River Basin (Natural Gas) is offshore. This is an unassociated or non-associated Natural Gas Hydrates reservoir – gas and no oil, a dry gas reservoir. When the Oil is gone, when the Shale Gas is gone, there will be Tight Gas Sands, (and) Tight Gas source rocks. THE source rocks (and) deep sands, offshore sediments.

California Tight Gas Sands Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation, Offshore Oil and Gas Basins

In the summer of 2013 petitions focusing on the Monterey Shale of Southern and Central California were numerous, and informed. Slowly, the un-associated Natural Gas Basins of the Sacramento San Joaquin Basins and north to Tehama were included in DOGGR workshops.

200,000 Statewide Credo Petitions were delivered to Jerry Brown and
70.000 Statewide MoveOn Petitions were delivered to Jerry Brown

But on the North Coast, the once fabled Redwood Curtain, serving Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties, seems now to be in the service of the oil and gas industry.

More Counties In California Ban The Frac King,
with updated section:
Eel River Basin Natural Gas and Fracking in Humboldt
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/23/18748316.php

25 years ago, when offshore oil platforms were the icon, was there enough consideration given to onshore resources? Extended reach drilling has changed the game, the geophysical and legal linguistics, access rights, the scope of environmental and health impacts, the volume of wastewater, the value of the resource and the economic exchange rate of political will.

Eel River Basin Natural Gas and Fracking in Humboldt
12,000 acres under lease
Wells to 10,000 feet depth
Fracture Stimulation Techniques
Tight Gas Sands, Natural Gas Hydrates

Full article: Eel River Basin Natural Gas and Fracking in Humboldt
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/23/18748316.php

In southern Mendocino County, the offshore Point Arena Basin holds enormous quantities of oil. In Humboldt County, 90% of the Eel River Basin (Natural Gas) is offshore. This is an unassociated or non-associated Natural Gas Hydrates reservoir – gas and no oil, a dry gas reservoir. When the Oil is gone, when the Shale Gas is gone, there will be Tight Gas Sands, (and) Tight Gas source rocks. THE source rocks (and) deep sands, offshore sediments.

HUGE natural gas basin off the Humboldt Coast, extends onshore, where exploration and production have already begun with leases that cover 12,000 acres. I think the companies holding the leases are holding back on completions, and further contracts with drillers including frackers. It's likely they are awaiting the outcome of DOGGR Final Regulations January 1, 2015 and the SB 4 requirements, along with the WSPA who-do voodoo man Jerry Brown's insistence that wells be grouped for the EIR, and then let's get drilling!

The Mendocino Coast may no longer be protected from offshore oil and natural gas development. Maybe offshore oil development and the onshore facilities that support that offshore oil development. That's how the protections read. Local ordinances in the General Plan of Mendocino and the Coastal Element might not adequately cover onshore development of natural gas zones, or access to offshore basins for extraction of Natural Gas Hydrates.

Please do some research – Un-associated gas, the Grizzly Bluff Field, in the Eel River Basin, Humboldt, CA. tight sands gas, Natural Gas Hydrates. View the article below, as a California tight gas sands frac primer with solid info and source links.

Eel River Basin Natural Gas and Fracking in Humboldt
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/23/18748316.php

Well Clusters and Onsite Waste Management: New Technology Concepts For Tight Gas

“Conventional reservoirs are those that can be produced at economic flow rates and that will produce economic volumes of oil and gas without large stimulation treatments or any special recovery process. A conventional reservoir is essentially a high- to medium permeability reservoir in which one can drill a vertical well, perforate the pay interval, and then produce the well at commercial flow rates and recover economic volumes of oil and gas.”

An unconventional reservoir is one that cannot be produced at economic flow rates or that does not produce economic volumes of oil and gas without assistance from massive stimulation treatments or special recovery processes and technologies. Typical unconventional reservoirs are tight-gas sands, coal-bed methane, heavy oil, and gas shales.

“Conventional reservoirs, are small in volume but easy to develop, whereas unconventional reservoirs are large in volume but difficult to develop. These are not, in fact, undiscovered resources, since their occurrences are fairly well-known”.

Tight Gas Reservoir Distribution: Types of Tight Gas reservoirs

The current understanding of the tight gas resource and past experience with production enhancement techniques, from nuclear detonations to hydraulic fracturing, both indicate that significant gas recovery can be achieved. The basic components for construction of a tight gas sand well include rotary drilling of a wellbore eventually completed with a hydraulic fracture stimulation.

Recent Advances and New Technology Exploration and Extraction Concepts

'Township Drainage' is the concept of draining an entire "township" with a single surface area of activity is required, in contrast to the multiple location approach. This can be achieved by "Well Clusters" in potential tight-gas productive areas. Further, environmental impact can be minimized by "Onsite Waste Management". Nothing leaves the location except saleable product. All waste materials (drill cuttings, drilling fluids, produced fluids) are safely re-injected into appropriate zones in the same formations. Recycle of materials is maximized.

New Technology Components
The concept of bringing offshore technology onshore i.e the multiple-well single location, with many wells being drilled from a single location and with lengths of some wellbores reaching a few miles, allowing wide coverage. This will reduce rig moving costs, location preparation costs and road building costs.

1. The multiple wellbores may be drilled and completed with the latest "slimhole" technologies … this drilling environment allows for utilization of underbalanced drilling for all wellbores: this increases rate of penetration...
2. One wellbore can be used for disposal of all required materials on site, eliminating the cost of trucking and land filling of these materials. Drill cuttings, drilling fluids and subsequently produced water never leave the location.

“To produce such reservoirs, multizone completions, oriented perforating, massive hydraulic fracturing, and cased-hole logging methods are all required … Drilling and completion of tight gas sands, can require fracking the same wellbore in five or six stages to achieve production. Multistage fracturing is now the norm in many tight-gas basins.” Tight Gas Reservoirs Unconventional Natural Energy Source for the Future 2006

While conventional development of Northern California gas fields has been for the most part limited to non-stimulated vertical well drilling of intervals with low to moderate permeability and highly laminated beds.
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/onepetropreview?id=SPE-114184-MS

The nature of the formations and the geology of the basin lend itself to realizing greater recovery potential with the use of fracturing stimulation techniques. Hydraulic fracturing is believed to have a significant positive impact potential – it can provide production acceleration from conventional reservoirs, and add new reserves from unconventional reservoirs.

Tight Gas Sands
http://jmccas1.hubpages.com/hub/Unconventional-Resources
“Tight gas” refers to natural gas produced from reservoirs that have very low porosities and permeabilities. Reservoirs are usually sandstone, although carbonate rocks can also be tight-gas producers. The standard industry definition for a tight-gas reservoir is a rock with matrix porosity of 10% or less and permeability of 0.1 millidarcy or less, exclusive of fracture permeability.

The methods for extracting gas from tight sand formations are analogous to those methods used for extracting gas from shale. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling are essential in most formations; however, there is no defined protocol for working gas from tight sands and shale. This is why the task is often assigned to engineers with many years of practical experience who can develop particularized solutions for any given reservoir.

http://www.ogfj.com/unconventional/tight-gas.html

The term tight gas sands refers to low-permeability sandstone reservoirs that produce primarily dry natural gas. A tight gas reservoir is one that cannot be produced at economic flow rates or recover economic volumes of gas unless the well is stimulated by a large hydraulic fracture treatment and/or produced using horizontal wellbores. This definition also applies to coalbed methane, shale gas, and tight carbonate reservoirs. Tight sands produce about 6 tcf of gas per year in the United States, about 25% of the total gas produced.

Humboldt County is currently a producing county.
Humboldt County Net Gas Production Well Count
Active 26
Inactive 29

Associated Gas (Mcf) 0
Nonassociated Gas (Mcf) 638,124
Total Gas (Mcf) 638,124
includes well count from Dry Gas (DG) and Gas Storage (GS)

“A review of conventional core, sidewall core, and outcrop sample data reveals that there is no fundamental difference in mineralogic composition, grain size, porosity, or permeability between the Anderson sandstones and the Lower Rio Dell sandstones. Hence, inferior reservoir rock quality is not to blame for lackluster gas production in the Lower Rio Dell sand packages. Vertical reservoir architecture and lateral continuity are more significant limiting factors in reservoir performance. The interbedded nature of Lower Rio Dell sand packages reduces vertical connectivity. By 2007, To date, approximately 1 BCFG had been produced at Grizzly Bluff almost exclusively from the Anderson sandstones.”

“Fracture stimulation might be an effective operation to optimize LRD gas production. Rio Dell Formation sandstones comprise most, if not all, known hydrocarbon reservoirs in the ERB subsurface (Figure 18). In addition to Anderson sandstones, the Holmes-Eureka sandstones are upper Rio Dell Formation gas reservoirs at Tompkins Hill (Hopps and Horan, 1983). The Eureka sandstones of the upper Rio Dell Formation are best developed at Table Bluff (Hopps and Horan, 1983). The Anderson sandstones and the lower Rio Dell sandstones are, at present, the sole hydrocarbon reservoirs at Grizzly Bluff.”

This isn't news to the Brassada/INNEX/Foothills Resources Inc., a Global Unconventional Reservoir Exploration and Extraction Company. And it isn't news to Chevron, or Vintage, or Occidental Petroleum (OXY) who have operated wells in the Eel River Basin in Humboldt County and share subsurface 3-D basin scans.

All that technological input for the 10% of the natural gas basin that is onshore?
90% of the Eel River Natural Gas Basin is offshore. The pay zones thin onshore, to the east...

Wednesday, November 3, 2004
"Tight Gas Sands of the Eel River Basin, California." Jere Jay, INNEX Energy
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/pttc/archive/nov3-2004-unconventional.htm
Ellison Miles Geotechnology Institute at Brookhaven College, Dallas Geological Society, Dallas Geophysical Society, SIPES Dallas Chapter, Fort Worth Geological Society, SIPES Fort Worth Chapter, PTTC Texas Region, and Southern Methodist University – Institute of Earth and Man Unconventional Reservoirs Symposium

What is the significance of access to the Eel River Basin offshore Natural Gas Hydrates?

Methane (Natural Gas) Hydrates in offshore subduction zone sediments hold the world's largest reserves of Natural Gas. More than all combined known global shale gas reserves. Not all coastlines share this geologic feature. The Eel River Basin (offshore) is important enough to be shown on the Global Inventory of Methane Deposits.
http://geology.com/articles/methane-hydrates/

And just for the historical record, 60km off the coast at Crescent City....

Offshore Natural Gas Hydrates (in marine sediments, sandstones)
July 1996
This informal report was prepared from the shipboard files by the scientists who participated in the cruise. Preliminary Report No. 67, First Printing 1996. Electronic Distribution copies of this publication may be obtained from the ODP Publications Home Page:
http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications

OCEAN DRILLING PROGRAM CALIFORNIA MARGIN
http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/prelim/167_prel/167prel.txt

LEG 167 PRELIMINARY REPORT
Leg 167 drilled 13 sites along the climatically sensitive California Margin.

Site 1019 (Proposed Site CA-1D)

Site 1019 is located about 60 km west of Crescent City, California, in the Eel River Basin at a water depth of 983 mbsl (Fig. 1). It is the nearshore site of the Gorda Transect. The primary drilling objective was to sample a high-resolution Pleistocene sediment section as part of the coastal transect from 30° to 40° N and as part of the Gorda Transect across the California Current at 40° N. One of the important objectives at this site was to study the formation of the bottom-simulating reflector (BSR) and to sample gas hydrates. A high-resolution pore-water sampling program was carried out to detect evidence of gas hydrate formation. A logging program was added to measure the extent of gas hydrate formation in situ (permeability).

While this may seem like a lot of information, there's more, by others! Here is a link to an excellent California article May 2013, with 4 pages of listed resources. Ban Hydraulic Fracking in California: Legislative responses to California's latest environmental crisis; full 20 pages
http://tamietziony.blogspot.com/2013/05/ban-hydraulic-fracking-in-california.html

And in October 2013, California coastal waters 'ocean fracking' was in the news.
http://www.fishsniffer.com/blogs/details/feds-urged-to-halt-fracking-off-the-california-coast/
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice letter with two federal agencies in charge of regulating offshore oil development, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/fracking-10-03-2013.html
“Oil companies are fracking California’s beautiful coastal waters with dangerous chemicals, and federal officials seem barely aware, we need an immediate halt to offshore fracking before chemical pollution or a spill poisons California’s rich coastal waters.”

Even in San Diego the sentiment is the same.
http://www.sandiegolovesgreen.com/feds-urged-to-halt-fracking-off-california-coast/


To sign a Northern Coastal Counties petition please select from one of the following options!

1) To be delivered to The California State House, The California State Senate, and Governor Jerry Brown - Fort Bragg by Ocean Protection Coalition (OPC)
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ocean-protection-coalition/?source=search


2) To be delivered to The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
South Mendocino Coast
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/ban-fracking-in-mendocino-county-1


3) To be delivered to The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
Potter Valley
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/ban-fracking-in-mendocino-county?sp_ref=13366667.4.822.e.0.2&source=mailto_sp


4) To be delivered to The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/tell-the-humboldt-county-board-of-supervisors-ban-fracking-now


Steam Injection Is Literally Global Warming.
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/

Tomas DiFiore
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by me
this is not the answer, don't you have children , ones you actually care about. why miss out on seeing your family grow to be happy and heathy . free from the toxic backlash you will, with no question, create by current methods of extraction.oh wait a minute you dont live here nor do you give a shit about eco anything or children . just money . so sad that this is what it has all come down to . peace and i hope someday some thing will change you and all the paid off elected officials like you . wind solar hydro. conserve. jlr-
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