
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 5, 1993                   TAG: 9311050099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHAPEL HILL, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

GAS DEPOSIT FOUND OFF CAROLINAS

A methane plume discovered 170 miles off the Carolina coast could mean the area is a vast storehouse of untapped energy, say two scientists who found the gas.

"This suggests that there may be large volumes of natural gas that are stored off the Carolinas," said Charles K. Paull, a geologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who helped discover the gas during a recent monthlong expedition.

Paull said the natural gas deposit is so deep in the ocean - 1.3 miles - and so far offshore - 170 miles east of Charleston, S.C. - that it couldn't be commercially exploited any time soon. But in a few decades, he said, the methane could be a relatively clean and plentiful source of energy.

"These are serious deposits," said Paull, who worked with Fred Speiss, a scientist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, to locate the gas deposit.

by CNB