RMP is 501(c)3 non-profit organization registered in Michigan. We are committed to protecting fresh water resources by advocating for: sustainable energy production, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, remediating environmental pollution & rethinking waste management.
The top story this month continues to be Marathon’s Science Well in Crawford County Michigan. Two weeks ago Marathon cleared a well pad in an area that we told you about first right here. Marathon has contracted Cruz Energy to rig up for a test well that will go 4,700 feet into the Amherstburg. The Amherstburg is part of the Detroit River Group of rocks of Middle Devonian age. The greatest accumulation of the Amherstburg formation is between southern Bay and Roscommon counties where its thickness exceeds 600 feet in some places. About half of its thickness at this thickest point is the Sylvania Sandstone member at the base of the formation. The outstanding characteristic of the carbonate rock in the Amherstburg formation is its relatively dark color which earns it the nickname from many geologists as Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – September 2015”
Part 625 wells are specially designated Michigan mineral test wells that are top secret stuff. Even though the land & minerals may be State owned by we the taxpayers, private companies like Marathon Oil based in Houston, TX can apply for a confidential 625 well and keep their activity off the grid. That means there will be: no mention of the well in the application or permit list we post each month at RMP, there will be no FOIA’s allowed, and you will not be able to get answers to questions about Continue reading “Secret Science – Marathon Oil’s 2015 Activity In The Michigan Basin”
There is really only one world-class hydrocarbon play in Michigan: the Antrim Shale Formation. The Antrim Shale Formation has provided a sustained 20% of Michigan’s natural gas needs for decades. No other Michigan natural resource can come close to matching that contribution to Michigan energy production. Operators have a 90% success rate drilling Antrim wells. On average, each Antrim well drilled will provide over half a billion cubic feet of natural gas. An Antrim well will only use a small amount of water and sand for completion (under ~10,000 gallons of h2o). Antrim wells show a solid record with regard to ground water contamination issues given the thousands that have been drilled. Antrim wells have also Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – August 2015”
The big news this month is the expiration of permits 60746-60750 & permits 60765-60767 for the State Excelsior extension pads just north of M-72 in Kalkaska Michigan. Calgary based EnCana Corporation originally received these permits in 2013 but they transferred to Houston, Texas based Marathon Oil Corporation when Marathon acquired EnCana’s Michigan assets in 2014. Each of these 8 HVHF permits that expired were estimated to require 23,100,000 gallons of water per completion. All told, that’s approximately 185,000,000 gallons of Michigan freshwater that will not be consumed because these wells will never be drilled.
The expiration of these 8 permits is significant because it’s more conclusive evidence that HVHF in Michigan’s Collingwood formation is not economical for operators between $3/mcf & $4/mcf selling prices. Even if natural gas prices were to return to their 2008 level of $7.97/mcf, the highest price in US history, Collingwood wells would not be profitable wells by a long shot. The energy produced from the 7 wells that did make it to production from the Collingwood formation have demonstrated themselves to be an uneconomical use of Michigan’s freshwater resources for energy production. But, the uneconomical use of Michigan freshwater has Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – July 2015”
It was another slow month for Michigan oil & gas activity like it has been every month since the initial hype of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) came to our state in 2010. Five years ago we were sold a bill of goods about how HVHF was going to revolutionize hydrocarbon production in our state. The last 5 years, however, have been the slowest in Michigan’s oil & gas exploration history.
Some people think there’s a drilling frenzy coming in Michigan and dream of their Jed Clampett style payday. Some think there’s a drilling frenzy coming and fear the impending doom of a fracing industry growing across our state like a virus. Both of those seemingly opposite schools of thought have more in common than you think, they’re both based in fantasy. As far as permitting goes, this year is on pace to be the slowest year in Michigan’s 88 year history of keeping track of permit numbers.
1931 was the slowest year on record in Michigan permitting history at 111 permits for the year. So far this year, we have 54 permits through six months of activity. If we extrapolate (54 * 2) we would have 108 permits for the year which would be the lowest on record. And, considering that many wells this year are two-for-one (i.e. two permits are issued for a single well with a horizontal leg) we have even less permits than the 54 reported through June 26, 2015.
Land owners hold steadfast to the unlikely possibility their land will get leased, drilled, and produce millions in royalties. They’ve fallen for the Jed Clampett fantasy.
In the May edition of the Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly (MOGM) we see something relatively new in the Michigan Basin: hydraulic fracturing with carbon dioxide (CO2). The nomenclature itself sounds funny because CO2 is not water and therefore the word hydraulic seems out of place. RMP has recently acquired the Record of Well Completion for the State Sherman & Forshee & Cooper 1-33A well in Sherman Township Michigan in Osceola county. The well was fracture stimulated with 51 tons of liquid CO2 and 10,500# of ceramic proppant in December of 2014. The initial flowback production from the Prarie Du Chien formation was 120 BOPD and 1.5 MMCFD of natural gas. In our February MOGM edition we were watching a company called GasFrac who is fracing using hydrocarbons. Fracing using CO2 is similar in that both methods are waterless. Click here to open a new tab in your browser to see the State Sherman & Forshee & Cooper 1-33A well on our interactive map.
The State Sherman & Forshee & Cooper 1-33A well is south of Cadillac and just north of Rose Lake. Copy & paste this URL into your browser to see the well on our interactive map: http://www.respectmyplanet.org/public_html/site/pru_number/?pru=17795
Understanding Michigan hydrocarbon production data is important for anyone interested in understanding the economics of energy production. Join us as we continue our journey to compile oil & gas production information that helps everyone understand more about energy, economics, and the protection of our public natural resources. There’s a ton of information out there. But how should we break it down in a way that tells us what’s really going on? With everything happening across our communities, at the state level, at the federal level, and even internationally, where do you focus your effort? What really matters?
Well, one thing that matters to everybody is money. When you get all the fluff out of the way, you realize it’s been about money the whole time. Dolla dolla bills y’all. Money is a common denominator regardless currency, boundary, nationality, company, or even country. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking oil, natgas, coal, wind, or solar either; energy’s common denominator is cost per unit. Money is the great leveler. But understanding money can get complicated. It gets especially complicated to understand money when you consider the long term environmental impact costs of energy production. For example, you could have high initial investment costs that have much better long term returns with respect to environmental impacts vs low initial costs that have large long term negative consequences on the environment.
Merit Energy’s website can be found here: https://www.meritenergy.com/
Just looking at the oil produced or gas produced won’t tell you the whole story about energy economics either. It will, however, teach us just a little bit more about the big picture; it’s like another brick in the wall. To understand the money as it relates to oil & gas, we need to understand fundamentals like Continue reading “2014 Top Oil, Gas, & NGL Producing Units in the Michigan Basin”
2014 Hydrocarbon production results for Michigan have all been updated into the Michigan database. Merit Energy’s Norwich Unit located just west of Higgins Lake was the #1 oil producer in 2014 at 119,187 barrels. This unit, made up of 288 wells, is referred to as a water flooding unit which means it is in secondary recovery. The per well production for this unit is actually very low at just over 1.1 BOPD. Take a minute to click here to view our interactive map of the 288 wells that make up this PRU (a static image of our interactive map is shown below). Zoom in on our Google map a little and you’ll see black oil markers mixed in with blue water injection markers. Water, which is heavier than oil, is injected in the oil reservoir through wells at the blue colored markers which pushes oil up to the surface at wells located at the black colored markers where there are pumpjacks.
Merit Energy’s Norwich Unit, made up of the 288 wells in the picture above, was the #1 oil producing unit in Michigan in 2014. Check out the interactive map @ http://www.respectmyplanet.org/public_html/site/pru_number/?pru=20020
Welcome to Volume 3 of the Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly for March 2015. In the featured image above is a March 2015 photo of the Dettore Et al 1-9 well in Lyon Township, Michigan. This Oakland County well is at the crossroads of Grand River, Milford Road, and Pontiac Trail in downtown New Hudson. The well is just south of the only runway at the Oakland Southwest Airport which was formerly called the New Hudson Airport. Surveillance cameras and No Trespassingsigns surround this well pad that runs right along side the Huron Valley Trail. The flare stack burns 24/7 and most likely attracts kids like a porch light attracts moths as it looks to be heavily damaged by mischievous behavior over the last 20 years.
The Dettore Et al 1-9 well was completed May 29, 1985 into the Niagaran Gray formation. It has reported production of 423k barrels of oil over 17 years and 1 month. Although it looks active, as evidenced by the flare stack burning 24/7, the well does not have reported production since December of 2011. Although there is a oil & water separator and a waste water tank on the well site that can be seen from the Huron Valley trail, the well has not reported any waste water production in its 17 year exisistence. This well was listed on the 1993 SAP list for contaminated soil.
Please read this paper to learn more about High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing in Michigan. This document is hosted by Friends of the Au Gres-Rifle Watershed.
