The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and an international consortium of oil and gas companies completed a concept test on the Alaskan North Slope to demonstrate that a steady flow of methane molecules could be extracted from gas hydrates submerged under the sea floor.  The DOE estimates there are approximately 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas 200 miles off the coast of South Carolina, and there are technically recoverable methane reserves trapped in gas hydrates nearing 85 trillion cubic feet in Alaska.