Selecting the method of gas hydrate deposits development in terms of the regularities of their formation

Purpose. To establish and show regularities of gas hydrates fields distribution in the World Ocean for the development of flow diagrams of methane extraction depending on genetic structures and the composition of the host rocks. Methods. The analysis of the existing fields of gas hydrates is made and, in view of impossibility to carry out detailed investigation, an opportunity to develop them is proved, a theoretical approach to a preliminary estimation of mining-and-geological conditions of such fields' excavation is developed. Findings. On the basis of the data obtained in the suggested way, it becomes possible to calculate the necessary technological parameters of processes related to deposits' opening and gas production from the bottom of the World Ocean. Originality. At the present stage of the research into a new alternative and the most promising source of energy, in the total absence of experience in the gas hydrates fields development, great practical significance is attached to the classification of fields by mining-and-geological conditions of their occurrence, as well as to the methodological approach to their development and calculation of technological parameters of methane extraction process from the bottom of the World Ocean with minimum effect onto the Earth's hydrosphere. Practical implications. Types of gas hydrates fields are determined for the first time in terms of mining-and-geological conditions of their development on the basis of genetic origin and structure of the host rocks. A theoretical approach to the description of the processes taking place in the seam during gas hydrates fields development is elaborated.