Ingo Pecher
Why Edinburgh?
Edinburgh has evolved into a world-leading location for the study of gas hydrates. Research into natural gas hydrates was jump-started by the Centre for Gas Hydrates Research at Heriot-Watt University which was established by Prof. Bahman Tohidi in 2000 with funding from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC, now SFC).
The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh is conducting research into the possible relation between gas hydrate melting and past submarine slides.
An invaluable asset for future gas hydrates research in Edinburgh will be the excellent links of the ECOSSE partners to the energy industry: Modern geophysical data targeting deeper hydrocarbon reservoirs are ideally suited for the study of shallow hydrate occurrences. The likely availability of some of these data to us in the future is bound to lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of natural gas hydrates.