International Workshop on Methane Hydrate Research and Development (4th) Held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on May 9-11, 2005

摘要

The Fourth Workshop of the International Committee on Gas Hydrates Research and Development was held during 9-11 May 2005 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Invited national agency representatives and international researchers from university, government, and industry convened to assess research priorities and to promote international collaboration on methane hydrate research. The 2.5-day workshop included plenary lectures and panel discussions, conducted as a working event where all participants engaged in open discussions to develop collaborative methane hydrate studies. The workshop was organized by the Centre for Earth and Ocean Research at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; the Marine Biogeochemistry Section at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA, the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and in cooperation with the Institute for Energy Utilization, AIST, Hokkaido, Japan; the Department of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; the Office of Naval Research - Global; the Geological Survey of Canada, and the United States Department of Energy. This series of annual international methane hydrate research and development workshops was initiated during March 2001 at the University of Hawaii. Subsequent workshops have been held in Washington, DC, USA and Vina Del Mar, Chile. At the previous three meetings, the focus was on presentaiton of research results on selected hydrate themes and description of national hydrate research programs. The workshops have resulted in international field and laboratory collaborations between U.S., Candadian, Japanese, Chilean, and German scientists working on methane hydrate exploration off the coasts of U.S., Canada, Chile, and Japan. At the Victoria workshop, the objective was more ambitious. A primary goal was to begin discussions.