For a number of years the NRC group has been working on a laboratory protocol for the analysis of gas hydrate that has been recovered from various natural sites. The expectation was that a comprehensive set of techniques would become available for the general use of hydrate researchers around the world. With the current set of available techniques a good picture of natural gas hydrates can be obtained, although the emerging complexity of the hydrate-mineral system still demands additional work. Here we present a suite of techniques that will take a researcher from preservation techniques to hydrate occurrence, gas/water/sediment ratios, gas and isotope analysis, P-T behaviour, structure, composition, degree of water conversion to hydrate, hydrate homogeneity and decomposition behaviour. As more detailed studies become possible a variety of more subtle features are revealed, for instance the role of minor gas components in hydrate stability, decomposition behaviour and heterogeneity in structure and composition.