Natural gas hydrate reservoirs in the northern South China Sea primarily comprise clayey silt, making exploitation more challenging relative to sandy reservoirs in other countries and regions. This paper provides an overview of the latest research developments in the exploitation mechanism covering the past five years, focusing on hydrate phase transition, multiphase flow in the decomposition zone, the seepage regulation of reservoir stimulation zone, and production capacity simulation, all of which are relevant to the previously conducted two rounds of hydrate trial production in offshore areas of China. The results indicate that the phase transition of clayey-silt hydrate remains in a dynamic equilibrium, with the decomposition efficiency mainly controlled by the coupling of heat and flow and high heat consumption during decomposition. The decomposition zone exhibits strong hydrophilicity, easy adsorption, and sudden permeability changes. A temperature drop is present that is concentrated near the wellbore, and once a water lock has formed, the gas-phase flow capacity significantly decreases, leading to potential secondary hydrate formation. To enhance permeability and increase production, it is imperative to implement reservoir and temperature field reconstruction based on initial formation alterations, which will further optimize and improve the transport capacity of the reservoir.

Lost circulation is a common and complex downhole accident in the process of oil and gas drilling. Traditional bridge plugging material has the limitation of poor adaptability to lost formations. Therefore,this study synthesized a new self-healing plugging material to improve the plugging success rate; specifically,the hydrophobic association polymer lauryl methlacrylate-acrylamide-acrylic acid containing Fe³⁺ was modified via curdlan to form a composite gel with high strength and self-healing properties. The self-healing time,mechanicalness and rheological properties of the self-healing gel were systematically evaluated. The results showed that the modification of curdlan could significantly improve the mechanical properties and rheological strength of self-healing gel,and the chelating structure formed by Fe³⁺ and carboxyl groups could further enhance the mechanical properties of the self-healing gel. Toughness and storage modulus of the LF_0.15C₂ self-healing gel with the introduction of curdlan and Fe³⁺ could reach 30.2 kJ/m³ and 3,458 Pa,respectively. Compared with conventional gel materials,composite gels with self-healing properties exhibited better pressure-bearing capacity of 2.5 MPa,and could effectively avoid causing plugging at the entrance of the fractures by high-concentration inert material and improve the pressure-bearing capacity. In addition,the plugging mechanism of the self-healing gel modified via curdlan in formation fractures was analysed in detail. The self-healing gel modified via curdlan prepared in this work has application potential as a lost circulation material in the field of oil and gas drilling.