Fiscal Year 2012 Methane HydratesFunding Opportunity Announcement | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Fiscal Year 2012 Methane Hydrates Funding Opportunity Announcement (Funding Opportunity Number DE FOA 0000668) was a discretionary federal funding opportunity issued by the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). It focused on advancing research and field work related to methane hydrates, which are ice-like crystalline deposits that trap methane in sediments, commonly found in deepwater marine settings and in Arctic permafrost regions. The overall intent of the opportunity was to strengthen the scientific and technical foundation needed to better locate, characterize, monitor, and understand methane hydrates both as a potential energy resource and as a component of the Earth system with environmental and climate relevance.

Funding was to be provided through cooperative agreements, which typically means DOE/NETL anticipated substantial involvement during project execution (for example, collaboration on technical direction, data sharing expectations, milestone reviews, or coordinated field activities), rather than a simple “award and leave it” grant structure. The program anticipated making about five awards, with an estimated total program funding level of $40,000,000 across all selected projects. The announcement listed no specific award ceiling or floor, which generally indicates that award sizes could vary depending on the scope, field campaign needs, and negotiated project plans. A cost-sharing requirement applied, meaning recipients were expected to contribute a portion of total project costs through non-federal funds or in-kind support, consistent with DOE fossil energy research and development practices.

Technically, the FOA emphasized three major project areas. First, it sought deepwater gas hydrate characterization using direct sampling and/or remote sensing field programs. This theme points to work such as collecting hydrate-bearing cores, downhole logs, pressure cores, and other in situ measurements in offshore environments, as well as using geophysical or remote sensing approaches like seismic methods to map hydrate occurrence and estimate saturation or distribution. The aim is to reduce uncertainty about where hydrates occur, how they are hosted in sediments, and what their physical and geologic controls are, which is essential for evaluating both resource potential and geohazard implications.

Second, the FOA called for new tools and methods to monitor and analyze field production tests (the text references “field reduction tests,” commonly understood in hydrate R&D as field depressurization and related production methods). This area focuses on improving the instrumentation, monitoring strategies, and data interpretation methods needed when attempting to induce hydrate dissociation and produce methane. It includes better ways to track pressure, temperature, fluid flow, geomechanical response, and gas and water production in real time, and then analyze those measurements to understand reservoir behavior, efficiency, and risks. In practice, this could encompass sensor development, modeling and history matching, improved interpretation of downhole and surface data streams, and integration of multi-physics datasets to evaluate what is happening during a test and why.

Third, the FOA targeted research to clarify the role of gas hydrates in the environment, including how hydrate systems might respond to warming climates. This reflects interest in methane hydrates as part of the broader carbon cycle and as a potential source of methane release under changing ocean temperatures, permafrost thaw, or shifting pressure-temperature stability conditions. Projects under this theme would be expected to strengthen understanding of stability boundaries, potential methane migration pathways, rates and triggers of dissociation, and the downstream environmental consequences. The goal is not only to quantify risks or sensitivities but also to improve the scientific basis for predicting and monitoring hydrate-related methane dynamics in a warming world.

Eligibility was listed as unrestricted, meaning the opportunity was broadly open to different types of applicants, subject to any clarifications in the full announcement text. DOE laboratory involvement was explicitly encouraged, but DOE labs were not to serve as the prime recipient, implying that national labs could participate as partners, subrecipients, or collaborators while a non-lab organization led the award. The activity category was Energy, and the CFDA number associated with the program was 81.089 (Fossil Energy Research and Development), which aligns with DOE’s fossil energy research portfolio that historically included methane hydrates as a strategic R&D topic.

Key administrative dates included a posted date of March 27, 2012, with a closing date of June 1, 2012, and an archive date of August 30, 2012, indicating the window during which applications were accepted and the period after which the listing was formally archived. The announcement referenced FedConnect as an additional information link source, consistent with how DOE opportunities were often distributed and managed at the time.

For applicant support, the point of contact listed was Mary Beth J. Pearse, Contract Specialist at NETL, reachable by phone at 412-386-4949 and by email at pearse@netl.doe.gov. This contact was specifically offered for assistance if applicants had difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, suggesting that detailed requirements, submission instructions, cost share specifics, and technical topic breakdowns were contained in the full FOA package rather than the brief synopsis.

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