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Japanese Gas Hydrate Researchers Visit Woods Hole
On January 7, 1999, Yoshihisa Okuda, of the Geological Survey of Japan, headed a 7-person team from a variety of Japanese organizations that visited the Gas Hydrates Group in Woods Hole. The Japanese are starting a new program of research funded by MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and organized by a government group called New Energy Development Organization of Japan. This will be a follow-up to the previous effort managed by the Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) that included the Mackenzie delta drilling of a year ago, in which C&MG and Energy Resources were cooperators. The JNOC studies will be culminating in a well that will be drilled into hydrate in the Nankai Trough this year. The meeting with the Okuda group was preceded by the December 7, 1998, visit by Shin-ichi Okada of the Japan Research Exploration Company. Both gatherings included presentations and discussions by Japanese scientists and USGS personnel on current research, future plans, laboratory simulation and hydrate physical property measurements, drilling programs, and gas hydrate storage techniques. Visits to GHASTLI (Gas Hydrates And Sediment Test Laboratory Instrument) always produce much exchange of information on techniques and interpretation of data. Possible collaboration was suggested by the Japanese during the meetings. The Okuda group followed the Woods Hole meeting by visiting Reston, and USGS gas hydrate researchers in Denver (Tim Collett), and Menlo Park (Keith Kvenvolden). They also stopped at the Department of Energy center in Morgantown, West Virginia, Colorado School of Mines, and Stanford. The discussions seem to indicate that Japan will make a major new thrust in gas hydrate research.
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in this issue:
Japanese Gas Hydrate Researchers Visit Arrivals & Departures—Menlo Park Arrivals & Departures—Woods Hole  |
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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