DISCUSSION ON MAIN CONTROL FACTORS OF GAS HYDRATE IN INDIAN EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONES

The Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 (NGHP-01) was executed in 2006 in the Krishna-Godavari(KG) Basin, Mahanadi Basin, Andaman Sea and Kerala-Konkan (KK) Basin. Hydrate samples were obtained from all these basins except for the KK Basin. In order to study the main controlling factors on gas hydrate in the four basins mentioned above, data of sedimentary background, including sedimentation rate, sediment thickness, total organic carbon (TOC) content in addition to the information on hydrate drilling are collected and compared. The KG Basin is the basin with largest sediment thickness and highest organic matter, and the hydrate saturation is relatively high; while the KK Basin is the basin with smallest sediment thickness and lowest organic matter, and no hydrate samples have been collected so far. Comparing with what we learnt from the South China Sea, it is concluded that sediment thickness and organic matter content have important control over gas hydrates occurrence in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zones.