RMP got it’s start tracking Michigan Oil & Gas when High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing came to Michigan in 2008. RMP has detailed maps of every HFHF Well along with pictures chronicling the construction of the wells. Those maps are currently offline, but will be restored some day if RMP can ever get any funding for those projects. But, tons of articles and information from our days publishing the Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly magazine remain as well as other educational materials on Michigan oil & gas. Check out some of the articles, galleries, and information below and let us know if you have any questions on Michigan Oil & Gas. RMP is Michigan’s leading non-profit authority on ground water contamination, hydraulic fracturing history, oil & gas production information, and the Michigan oil patch in general.
RMP got it’s start with the “Stop Fracking” movement in Michigan in 2008. When HVHF came to Michigan in 2008 when Encana started using over 10,000,000 gallons of Michigan freshwater to frack a single well. RMP was basically born at that moment. We started as a small group of volunteers that needed to know what HVHF was and how our fresh water was being protected or abused. Because the technology of horizontal drilling and high volumes of water for completion was so novel to Michigan oil & gas exploration, it was a slap in the face to citizens to hear “we’ve been doing this for years”. In a way, RMP’s small group of volunteers was forced to analyze information and monitor activity to really know how to differentiate facts from fiction. We learned what we thought was true: we hadn’t been doing this for years as we’ve been told, HVHF was completely different than conventional completions. While an Antrim frack consumes about 50,000 gallons of water on average, a 10M gallon completion consumes 200x more water. These were unprecedented amounts of water being withdrawn. HVHF compared to an Antrim well was like saying a bat and blue whale are the same thing because they’re both mammals. Through RMP’s on the scene reporting during construction of these massive well pads and during the HVHF completion process, RMP discovered the Westerman well completion (Michigan’s last HVHF completion) emptied the water table and ran it dry. RMP’s data driven sleuthwork determined two other wells ran the ground dry during the HVHF boom also.
By using Michigan public data to review all of Michigan’s over 65,000 well ids and putting that data on the map, RMP got to learn about Michigan’s oil & gas history and its current state of play. By 2013, the “majors” like Encana, Marathon, Chevron, and Devon were giving up on Michigan’s Collingwood formation as a producer. The Westerman 1-32HD1 was the last HVHF well drilled in early 2013 and completed in the late spring of 2013. RMP’s top volunteer Neo was on the scene of all 57 HVHF wells drilled in Michigan from 2008 to 2013. He was getting deep into the woods to get pictures of everything and provided on-the-ground insight that no other environmental organization in Michigan could provide. By the summer of 2013, RMP’s five year crash course of a journey to understand Michigan’s oil & gas industry was coming to an end as Halliburton’s HVHF equipment rolled off the Westerman pad in June of 2013. RMP was the first to announce to the other “Stop Fracking” groups that the majors would never be back to Michigan. We knew, because we put in the work to understand how the oil & gas industry works. It’s been over 10 years and the majors have not come back Michigan just as RMP predicted. Some “Stop Fracking” groups held on for another year or so because they never really got into the data like RMP did. To us, It was simple: if there was no pay day for the oil & gas companies, they would leave Michigan; and that’s exactly what they did. If the Collingwood could produce like the Marcellus, the majors would have never left Michigan, despite any “Stop Fracking” groups efforts.
In the years that have passed since 2013, RMP has stopped hosting our Michigan Oil & Gas database. We would like to get that data back up on the web again in the future but we are a very small organization with zero funding. There is still a Michigan oil & gas industry to cover, but it is in decline. There are 100s and 100s of active wells in Michigan of various types. There are oil wells, natural gas wells, brine disposal wells, and natural gas storage wells. There are also thousands of dry holes which are attempts drillers made hoping to hit pay dirt but missed. What is important now, is making sure abandoned wells in Michigan (call “orphan” wells) get properly plugged & abandoned in order to protect Michigan’s fresh water.
When RMP brings back our Michigan oil & gas maps, we will be focusing on Gas Storage as Michigan consistently ranks in the top 5 states for natural gas storage with about 1.1Tcf of storage capacity (about 25% of U.S. storage capacity). Most Michigan storage wells are drilled into the Michigan Stray formation. The Michigan Stray Formation is part of the Upper Devonian period and is located within a geologically rich area that covers most of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The formation is typically found at depths ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 feet. The Stray Formation primarily consists of porous sandstone, which is highly permeable and allows for the efficient injection and withdrawal of natural gas. The formation is often interbedded with shales and other sedimentary rocks, providing natural sealing layers that help contain the gas within the storage reservoir. The Stray Formation was originally developed for natural gas production. Over time, as the natural gas reserves in the formation were depleted, it became an ideal candidate for conversion into a gas storage reservoir.
The Michigan Stray Formation is a cornerstone of natural gas storage in Michigan, and its favorable geological characteristics make it a preferred target for storage wells. Its high porosity and permeability, coupled with natural geological seals and a history of natural gas production, provide an ideal environment for storing large volumes of natural gas. This, along with Michigan’s strategic location and seasonal demand patterns, explains why more natural gas storage wells target the Stray Formation than any other formation in the region. The Niagaran formation and Salina formation are also important objective formations for natural gas storage in Michigan.
RMP’s only ambitions remaining related to Michigan oil & gas is to understand how our gas storage plays a role in our energy security and making sure all wells drilled in Michigan are properly plugged to protect our drinking water. RMP will always consider water more valuable than oil.
