Holy smokes! I think I found the smoking gun!!

This excerpt is from a USGS publication. It states as follows;

Hazards

Gas hydrates represent a hazard to
conventional oil and gas production. In the
Gulf of Mexico, oil and gas exploration is
extending into water depths where gas
hydrates occur at the sea floor. Pumping
hot oil from great depths through drill
pipes can cause warming of sediments and
dissociation of hydrate, liberating large
amounts of methane, weakening sediments,
and perhaps generating pockets of
highly pressured gas. The result might be
gas blowouts, loss of support for pipelines,
and sea-floor failure that could lead to
underwater landslides and the release of
methane from hydrates.