GAS HYDRATES IN THE NORTH MAKASSAR BASIN, INDONESIA

B.A. Jackson

Jackson Geophysical Consulting Pty Ltd, Nedlands, WA, Australia

A new gas hydrate province has been identified in the North Makassar Straits between the islands
of Borneo and Sulawesi.

The data base for the interpretation of the bottom simulating reflector (BSR) comprised 21,000
kilometres of newly acquired and reprocessed multi-client marine 2D seismic data encompassing
an area of approximately 100,000 km2.

The same tectonic event was also responsible for the initiation of the west-verging fault
propagation folds which created the foldbelt. The foldbelt is comprised of numerous thrust sheets
creating long anticlinal structures and intervening mini-basins in which are observed numerous
high amplitude reflection packages indicating the presence of coarse-clastic turbidite facies.

The deposition of the fill and spill turbidite sequences had two significant effects for gas hydrate
accumulation in the West Sulawesi Foldbelt. First, coarse grained turbidites provided an effective
reservoir for hydrates in addition to a transport medium for migrating gas and a steady supply of
water. Secondly, the turbidites were likely to transport terriginous plant matter into the deep
water where biogenic processes produced the methane required for gas hydrate formation.

Most of the BSR anomalies are concentrated on the east side of the study area in the vicinity of
the West Sulawesi Foldbelt approximately 300 milliseconds below the seafloor.

The West Sulawesi fault propagation folds concentrate free gas below the hydrates resulting in a
dramatic BSR which is almost continuously present within the foldbelt. Although the BSR fades in
the intervening synclines, the hydrates are still likely to be present.

On the eastern side of the foldbelt, the BSR can not be identified with certainty since there are
many high amplitude turbidite slope sands and unconformities parallel to the seafloor that
truncate reflectors in a manner similar to a BSR.

On the west side of the study area, in the vicinity of the toe-thrusts associated with gravity sliding
in the Mahakam Delta, there appear to be fewer BSRs partially due to recent sedimentary
processes that make identification difficult. The problem of BSR identification may be similar to
that found in the Gulf of Mexico where, rather than the conventional through going reflector, the
BSR is represented by a lineation of steeply dipping, high amplitude anomalies separated by a
significant thickness of non-anomalous sediment.

BSRs are difficult to identify on the abyssal plain between the West Sulawesi Foldbelt and the toe-
thrusts of the Mahakam Delta, due to the flat lying sediments near the seafloor. However, several
BSRs can be identified where a through going reflector is observed in an area of pervasive block
faulting near the seafloor. This observation provides evidence that there may be a more
widespread distribution of gas hydrate in the abyssal plain than indicated by BSRs.
Unusual BSRs were observed within the study area in the form of a palaeo-BSR and a mud volcano. A
possible palaeo-BSR was observed beneath the crest of an eroded anticline in the West Sulawesi
Foldbelt. Erosion of the anticline would have caused the downward migration of the gas
hydrate/free gas phase boundary thereby dropping the temperature at the palaeo-BSR and turning
the free gas into high-velocity gas hydrate lens. Angular truncation of the back limb reflectors is
observed at the seafloor providing strong evidence that significant erosion has taken place. As would
be expected, the proposed palaeo-BSR exhibits the opposite seismic polarity compared to the
underlying, present day BSR.

A mud volcano is located at the crest of a fault propagation fold in the West Sulawesi Fold Belt
where significant fluids may have risen up the thrust fault from depth. The BSR is 250 milliseconds
below seafloor at the crest of anticline directly below the mud volcano whilst on the flanks of the
anticline, the BSR is at 300 milliseconds, suggesting that the geothermal gradient is higher in the
vicinity of the mud volcano due hot fluid expulsion. The fluids rising from depth may also contain
higher-end hydrocarbons and thermogenic gas. Massive hydrate mounds at the seafloor are often
associated with such expulsion sites but have not been imaged by the relatively sparse areal
coverage of the 2D surveys in this study.

Numerous debris flows and slump features have been observed in the study area which appear to be
directly related to the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Elevated pore pressure at the base of the
GHSZ caused by a periodic eustatic sea level drop and related gas hydrate dissociation are thought to
be one cause of submarine slope failure. In addition, the North Makassar Basin is a tectonically
active area with both east vergent and west vergent compression from the Mahakam Delta toe
thrusts and West Sulawesi Fold Belt, respectively. Earthquakes associated with the compressional
tectonics could have triggered numerous submarine slides within the North Makassar Basin resulting
in massive debris flows up to 2400 km2 in area. An example is shown where the base of the debrite
is approximately 300 milliseconds sub-bottom and is comparable to the sub-bottom depth of the
adjacent BSR. The slope at the base of the debrite is 0.6 degrees.

There is also seismic evidence of rotated slump blocks that sole out at the base of the GHSZ and may
be the precursors to a massive debris flow in which the bedding is disintegrated resulting in a typical
chaotic internal seismic character. An example on the eastern side of the West Sulawesi Fold Belt
shows a rotated fault block with an underlying listric fault that appears to sole out at the base of
high amplitude reflectors at about 300 milliseconds sub-bottom. Although no definite BSR is present,
the base of the GHSZ is inferred to be at about 300 milliseconds sub-bottom, similar to other areas
within the West Sulawesi Fold Belt, and coincident with the change from shallow high frequency,
high amplitude reflectors to deeper, low frequency, low amplitude reflectors. The average water
bottom slope is approximately 1.3 degrees.

The geothermal gradient in the study area was determined from BSRs by estimating the pressure at
the base of the GHSZ via a combination of hydrostatic (water column) and lithostatic (water bottom
to BSR) pressure which yielded a temperature from the gas hydrate phase equilibrium relationship.
The thermodynamic phase equilibrium curve was calculated with Heriot-Watt University’s HWHYD
demo program (Tohidi, 2003) using structure I hydrates with a composition of 98% methane, 1%
ethane and 1% carbon dioxide with 3.5% salt. A hydrostatic gradient of 9.8 kPa/m (0.433 psi/ft) was
used for the water column and a pressure gradient of 18 kPa/m (0.795 psi/ft) was used in the
sediment layer within the GHSZ to determine the total pressure at the BSR. Estimates of water
bottom temperature were determined from empirical equations derived by Beardsmore & Cull
(2001) using Bottom Water Temperature (BWT) data published in the Journal of Deep-Sea Research
between 1984 and 1989 and which relate seafloor temperature, Tsf (°C), to water depth, z(m), and
latitude, L(degrees). The geothermal gradient calculated from the BSR data appears highest in the
centre of the Makassar Strait with a value of 6°C/100m and decreases to the east to about 3°C/100m
in the southern part of the West Sulawesi Fold Belt and 2°C/100m in the northern area. Overall, the
BSR derived geothermal gradients appear reasonable and show promising values for the maturation
of hydrocarbons within the deeper parts of the West Sulawesi Fold Belt. The mean value for over
13,000 points at the BSR locations was 4.7°C/100m.

In order to calculate heat flow from the BSR derived geothermal gradients, an estimate of thermal
conductivity was made based on a derived relationship between thermal conductivity and p-wave
velocity (Horai, 1982). Data from the DSDP Leg 60 holes, Central America and the Nankai Trough
(Yamano et al, 1982) were used to create a linear regression between p-wave velocity vs. thermal
conductivity. An average p-wave velocity of 1.625 km/s was determined from several stacking
velocity analyses on the 2D seismic data within the West Sulawesi Foldbelt and was used to estimate
an average thermal conductivity of 1.016 W m-1 C-1 for the entire study area. The geothermal
gradients were multiplied by the average thermal conductivity resulting in a BSR derived heat flow
map for the study area. The map compared favourably with a heat flow map for SE Asia recently
compiled from all available heat flow data by the SE Asia Research Group at the Department of
Geology, Royal Holloway University of London (Hall, 2002).

Estimations of gas hydrate sourced methane depend on the areal extent, reservoir thickness and
porosity, gas hydrate saturation and a hydrate gas yield volumetric factor that defines how gas
hydrate converts to gas at standard pressure and temperature. A commonly used value for the
hydrate gas yield volumetric factor is 164m3 of gas for every 1m3 of gas hydrate, assuming a 90%
gas-filled hydrate lattice. A gas in place estimate was computed for the area encompassing ~8000
km2 contiguous BSR within the West Sulawesi Fold Belt. An estimated 40% gas hydrate saturation
was used for this study based on a compromise between the very low pore space saturations of
around 5-6% in the Blake Ridge to the high saturation of 80% established for the Nankai Trough.
Using a porosity of 36% and a gas hydrate saturation of 40% of pore space, a 10m thick reservoir
resulted in an estimated gas in place of 1.89 trillion m3 (67 TCF) at standard pressure and
temperature.

Free gas zone estimates depend on similar parameters with the exception of the hydrate gas yield
volumetric parameter which is replaced by the gas expansion factor for the expansion of gas to
standard temperature and pressure. Once again, a 10 metre sand with 36% porosity is assumed as
well as the same area. Pore space gas saturation is unknown but has been estimated in other areas
of the world such as the Niger Delta (Hovland et al. 1997), to be quite low, in the 3-5% range.
Average pressure and temperature at the BSR is around 21 MPa and 17.6°C, respectively, yielding a
gas expansion factor of 263. Again, using a porosity of 36% and assuming a gas saturation of 5% for
the entire area of 8000 km2, the estimated free gas in place within a 10m reservoir is 379 billion m3
(13 TCF) at standard temperature and pressure.
Although the hydrate and free gas volume estimations are very large for the West Sulawesi Foldbelt,
the main problem is producing the deep water gas in an economic manner. Production of gas
hydrates is the subject of ongoing research in several countries such as Japan, Canada and the
United States.

In summary, the east side of the North Makassar Strait is a significant, new gas hydrate province
containing considerable volumes of methane. The area exhibits several hydrate related phenomena
such as mud volcanoes, palaeo-BSRs and submarine slides which, although not new, are rarely seen
together. Furthermore, the gas hydrates overlie what may prove to be a prospective conventional
hydrocarbon exploration area in the West Sulawesi Fold Belt. The information provided in this paper
may provide an impetus to oil companies to investigate further gas hydrates whilst exploring for
conventional hydrocarbons. Geothermal gradients derived from the BSR database averaged
4.7◦C/100m whilst derived heat flow values varied from 20 mW m-2 to 60 mW m-2, comparing
favourably with regional heat flow data.

Reserve estimations for the most contiguous accumulation of gas hydrates (~8000 km2) yielded an
estimated 1.89 trillion m3 (67 TCF) of methane gas. Reserves in the free gas zone beneath the gas
hydrate in the same area were estimated to be 379 billion m3 (13 TCF).

The author would like to thank MIGAS, TGS-NOPEC and WesternGeco for making available the
seismic data and for permission to publish this study.s