## 5 Conclusions  
Based on the comprehensive analysis of the effects of various heating parameters, including heating power, heating location, heating time, and heating mode, on the vertical well depressurization production performance of the Class 1-type NGH reservoir in the Shenhu Sea area, the following results were obtained:  
1. In situ electric heating has a good effect on increasing production capacity, and its main mechanism is to promote the dissociation of hydrates and eliminate secondary hydrates. When the vertical wellbore with a completion length of 70 m is deployed in the center of the model and continuously mined for 1080 days under a production pressure difference of 4 MPa, the \(V_{g}\) of the whole wellbore heating case is increased to 118.56% compared with the case without heating.
2. When intermittent heating is applied to the local wellbore (15 m) located in the TPL (with an interval of 30 days) and stop heating in advance at 480 days, there is no significant difference in the \(V_{g}\) after 1080 days of production compared to the whole wellbore heating, and the cumulative heat input is only 4.76% of the whole wellbore heating. We recommend considering intermittent heating of the local wellbore and stopping heating in advance during vertical well depressurization, which can greatly save heating energy consumption while increasing production capacity.
3. Intermittent heating of the local wellbore may be an effective strategy to maintain high production capacity while reducing energy consumption during vertical well  
Figure 16: Gas and water production curve with different heating modes within 1080 days. (**a**) Gas production rate and cumulative gas production. (**b**) Water production rate and gas-to-water ratio.  
Figure 17: \(EROI_{custom}\) curve with different heating modes within 1080 days.  
depressurization. In the future, we will combine methods such as complex structured wells and reservoir reconstruction to further study the effects of intermittent heating of local wellbore on natural gas and water production in different types of hydrate reservoirs.  
T.W.: conceptualization, methodology, software, and writing--original draft. Z.L.: formal analysis and investigation. H.L.: funding acquisition. L.T.: formal analysis and investigation. M.W.: writing--review and editing and supervision. Z.C.: resources. Q.L.: data curation and visualization. J.Q.: data curation and visualization. J.W.: supervision and project administration. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
The authors would like to thank the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021 YFB3401405); the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. SQ2023 YC2800361); the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2022A1515011902); the Guangzhou Science and Technology Program (No. 202206050002); and the Director General's Scientific Research Fund of Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, China (No. 2023 GMGSJZJ00027), for providing financial assistance for this research.  
Not applicable.  
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors on request.  
All authors were employed by the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication.