Another historic first for Mallik 2002 - The first intentional flare of gas hydrate.

The drilling rig was released today, 79 days and 3.5 hours since the first well was started on December 25, 2001. The days since the last report were filled with the continuation of the production testing, started on March 5 and completed at midnight on March 11. While the production testing was underway a team from University of Alberta and University of Toronto were conducting seismic experiments including one that they hope will capture time lapse images of the gas hydrate dissociating. During the production testing the heated circulating fluids were periodically spiked with a know quantity of a tracer chemical to allow researchers to calculate how much water was being added to the drill mud from the gas hydrate layer.

The last element of the science program was the successful completion of the cased-hole logging using a variety of geophysical tools, including one that hopefully will map the dissociation interface in three dimensions.

All three wells have been capped and abandoned. The DTS cables, still deployed down the two observation wells have been bundled up safely in protective monuments that can be revisited for temperature measurements in the summer. Unfortunately the longest of the DTS cables left in the main well was damaged when the casing was trimmed to ground level and will not be usable for future temperature measurements.

The field program involving more than 60 scientists and engineers with over 250 support workers contributing to the project has been a success. Temperature are cold enough that the roads should be in good shape for the demobilization of the rig and camp equipment back to Inuvik and to the south. Well done Team.