The assessment of the production potential of hydrates requires predictions of their complex behavior. The reliability and accuracy of these predictions hinges on the following three factors: (1) the availability of robust numerical simulators that describe the dominant processes and phenomena, (2) knowledge of the parameters and relationships that quantify the physical processes (usually obtained from labo­ratory experiments and/or from field tests either by direct measurement or through history-matching) and the thermophysical properties of all the components of the simulated system, and (3) the availability of field and laboratory data for the valida­tion of the numerical models. The complexity of the coupled processes involved in the dissociation reaction does not permit the use of analytical models either for direct predictions or for the verification of the numerical models except under lim­ited conditions, i. e., at early times and after significant approximations.

Thus, the role of numerical simulation is critically important, and is practically the only tool that allows the assessment of the gas production potential of hydrates. It allows the design of laboratory and field experiments, can provide answers (or, at a minimum, general behavior trends) to very complicated problems at a very rea­sonable cost before necessitating substantial investments for field operations, and allows investigation of a wide range of alternative (“what-if ’) scenarios that would be impossible to explore otherwise. Note that even if there are no field or laboratory data for code validation and only very sketchy data describing the properties and physical processes in the system, numerical simulation can provide very important insights (provided the underlying physics are correct and representative of the simu­lated processes) because it makes it possible to determine technical feasibility, to establish envelopes of possible solutions, to determine sensitivity to particular parameters and processes, and to identify promising target zones of hydrates for development.