Study points to major source of natural gas

WASHINGTON - Government scientists believe Alaska's North slope has huge deposits of frozen natural gas that could be extracted using current technology, an Interior Department report concludes.

The study by scientists at the department's US Geological Survey estimates that more than 85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the form of gas hydrates - methane gas locked in water as an icelike solid - eventually may be recoverable from Alaska's North Slope.

The abundance of methane hydrates in nature has been known for decades. The study released yesterday is the first assessment of the largest recoverable concentration of gas hydrates in the United States.

The report cautioned that further research will be needed to determine whether such development will be economical.

Scientists are also uncertain about what impact the disruption of the frozen methane gas may have on global warming. They are concerned that disturbing the gas hydrates could result in a large release of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is 21 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

Nevertheless, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said, the study "points to a truly significant potential for natural gas hydrates" as a clean-energy resource.