90 / 96
FROZEN HEAT
90
4.3.1
REGULATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN
A CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC MODEL
Some of the policy issues surrounding gas hydrate develop-
ment are related to regulation. Particularly as a consequence
of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mex-
ico, regulatory considerations related to frontier oil and gas
exploration and development have come under increased
scrutiny worldwide (Anderson
et al.
2011). At present, there
are no regulations specific to gas hydrate production. It is
likely that gas hydrate production would be regulated as one
of several unconventional gas resources, such as coal bed
methane or shale gas.
If current practice is followed, the onus would be on in-
dustry to establish the concentration and geographic extent
4.3
POLICY ISSUES AND OPTIONS
Photo: Lawrence Hislop, GRID-Arendal