In this work we have formulated the set criteria for cost-effective selection of technologies for industrial production of gas from a hydrate deposit, which rely on the properties of hydrate-bearing rock and the geologic properties of the gas hydrate deposit. For over forty years the world’s energy industry has been trying to effectively master vast unconventional resources of natural gas – the natural gas hydrates [1;3;4]. Specialists have accumulated during this period of time a great deal of knowledge about gas hydrates [8;10]. They established the conditions of hydrate formation in sedimentary rock and the conditions of formation and disappearance of gas hydrate deposits, and offered several classification methods for gas hydrate deposits. Specialists have proposed several methods to locate the gas hydrate accumulations on land and offshore and determined the probable areas where gas hydrate deposits may exist. More than 220 gas hydrate deposits were found to-date, and methods to calculate the amount of gas in a hydrate deposit were developed [1;12]. The principles of gas production from a hydrate deposit were formulated and real experience of commercial natural gas production from a hydrate deposit was gained. However, until now there were no set economic criteria for selection of effective technologies for industrial development of gas hydrate deposits. This results in periodic development of various models not applicable to specific geologic conditions.

This thesis takes the position that current analyses of digitally mediated interactive experiences that include narrative elements often lack adequate consideration of the technical and historical contexts of their production. / From this position, this thesis asks the question: how is the reader/player/user's participation in interactive narrative experiences (such as hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, computer games, and electronic art) influenced by the technical and historical limitations of the interface? / In order to investigate this question, this thesis develops a single methodology from relevant media and narrative theory, in order to facilitate a comparative analysis of well known exemplars from distinct categories of digitally mediated experiences. These exemplars are the interactive fiction Adventure, the interactive art work Osmose, the hypertext fiction Afternoon, a story, and the computer/video games Myst, Doom, Half Life and Everquest. / The main argument of this thesis is that the technical limits of new media experiences cause significant ‘gaps’ in the reader’s experience of them, and that the cause of these gaps is the lack of a dedicated technology for new media, which instead ‘borrows’ technology from other fields. These gaps are overcome by a greater dependence upon the reader’s cognitive abilities than other media forms. This greater dependence can be described as a ‘performance’ by the reader/player/user, utilising Eco’s definition of an ‘open’ work (Eco 21). / This thesis further argues that the ‘mimetic’ and ‘immersive’ ambitions of current new media practice can increases these gaps, rather than overcoming them. The thesis also presents the case that these ‘gaps’ are often not caused by technical limits in the present, but are oversights by the author/designers that have arisen as the product of a craft culture that has been subject to significant technical limitations in the past. Compromises that originally existed to overcome technical limits have become conventions of the reader/player/user’s interactive literacy, even though these conventions impinge on the experience, and are no longer necessary because of subsequent technical advances. As a result, current new media users and designers now think of these limitations as natural. / This thesis concludes the argument by redefining ‘immersion’ as the investment the reader makes to overcome the gaps in an experience, and suggests that this investment is an important aspect of their performance of the work.