Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

A qualitative indication of resource potential, and hence a qualitative
ranking of ELCS regions and their coastal states, can be made by comparing
the known reserve province against the location of those countries with
significant sedimentary sequence thickness. However, it does not indicate the
estimated resource volume.
The hydrocarbon resource potential, based on sediment thickness,
crustal age and basement type is shown on Figure 25. High resource potential
that coincides with ELCS regions are found throughout the Atlantic seaboard
of North and South America (including the Labrador Sea); Antarctica;
northern and western Norway; south and west of the United Kingdom and
Ireland; parts of north-west Africa; south-west Africa, south-east Africa and
East of the Horn of Africa; South of Pakistan; East and West of India; South of
Tasmania (Australia); North of New Zealand and East of Australia; the Sea of
Okhotsk; and the Alaskan Arctic seaboard. In all of these areas, conventional
hydrocarbon resources are considerable and of high potential value.
In many of the ELCS areas identified as having hydrocarbon resource
potential, the seafloor lies beyond 500 m depth and 200 nautical miles from
shore. In high latitudes there is both seasonal and permanent ice shelf cover.
For these reasons, hydrocarbon resources in the ELCS regions are mostly submarginal
to para-marginal. What can not be indicated or predicted is the size
of individual oil fields, or whether sedimentary sequences that a have high
potential for hydrocarbon resources have adequate geological traps. However,
there is considerable potential for exploitation in the future when technology
and economic conditions make exploration, proving, and ultimately
exploiting of these resources viable.
4.7 Marine gas hydrate deposits
4.7.1 What marine gas hydrate deposits comprise
Gas hydrates occur widely in nature mainly beneath the seafloor in
deep-sea sediments but also close to the seabed in shallow arctic seas. This is
because the compound is stabilised by a pressure – temperature relationship.
In water depths greater than 300 m it can form at temperatures well above
IINTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 726