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.
Crickets. New oil & gas activity in the Michigan Basin is so slow through the first quarter of 2016 that the only thing you can hear at the OOGM permitting department is crickets. 2015 was the slowest year in Michigan oil & gas history for new permitting activity breaking the old record set in 1931. In the first three months of 2015, the slowest year in Michigan history, the Office of Oil, Gas, & Minerals (OOGM) had received 24 applications and had issued 28 permits. As of today, through the first three months of 2016, Michigan’s OOGM has received only two applications and issued only six permits. New oil & gas permitting activity in 2016 is on pace to set the bar substantially lower than last year’s record as the slowest year ever.
Each month, RMP publishes a detailed recap of oil & gas activity in the Michigan Basin. This edition marks our 14th since our inaugural monthly edition was published in January of 2015. It’s time to follow up on a couple things we reported in 2015. One of the hot topics in our hometown Detroit newspapers and on our Detroit radio stations is the application for the Word of Faith 16-27 well targeting Michigan’s Silurian age Niagaran Reef. Jordan Development out of Traverse City, Michigan filed the application in October of 2015.
This is an example of the bolierplate used by many of the people who submitted a comment in favor of the Word of Faith 16-27 well being permitted for drilling. Click to enlarge.
What makes the Word of Faith 16-27 oil well different than many other potential Michigan wells is that it’s within the city limits of Southfield, which has a population of nearly 75,000 people. Often times when an application is received for a well in a heavily populated Metro Detroit city, the MDEQ’s OOGM will extend the application review process to hear comments from the public. The MDEQ has sole legal authority to permit any Michigan oil well regardless of symbolic gestures like a moratorium enacted by the Southfield City Council in effect until April 28, 2016. Only a court ordered injunction via lawsuit can Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – February 2016”
The big story this month is the location of the Ensign #161 drilling rig. The lat/lon of Ensign #161 on the date of this post’s publication is 40.4293, -104.604 which is not a Michigan lat/lon. You can see a map of Ensign #161 along with 10 other active Ensign rigs in the same area of Colorado by clicking on this link (depending on when you read this, the location may have changed). With Ensign #161’s location in Greeley, Colorado, which is just north of Denver and just SE of Fort Collins, you might wonder: why is Ensign #161’s Colorado location the big story in Michigan in January of 2016?
The December issue of RMP’s Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly (MOGM) marks our 12th edition, our first full year of publications, and the final edition for 2015. The story for 2015 was this: oil & gas exploration in Michigan is at its slowest ever. It was the all-time slowest year in Michigan’s oil & gas exploration history beating the record set in 1931 for lowest permitting & drilling activity. While the predictions RMP made last year were spot on target for Michigan in 2015, some unexpected things happened also.
Half-way around the world, Saudi Arabia’s 2015 actions to increase their own crude oil production to stave off US shale production have had a deep cutting effect on American oil & gas producers across the nation as well as right here at home. As long as we rely on crude oil as an energy source, the King of Saudi Arabia can significantly impact a large segment of our energy economy which effects our national security and causes Americans to lose jobs. Switching from internal combustion engines to fuel cells would fundamentally change the balance of world power as it relates to energy. America can end its reliance on Saudi Arabia & other OPEC countries by responsibly migrating away from crude oil as an energy source. We have seen American oil producing companies lose major percentages of their net financial worth and layoff tens of thousands of American workers in 2015 because of Saudi actions.
Chesapeake has lost nearly 70% of its value in 2015. More evidence with hard numbers that supports what RMP has been saying all along about the oil & gas bust because of actions taken in Saudi Arabia to hurt American companies.
Michigan has issued 104 permits so far this year through November 20, 2015 and continues its streak of the slowest 6 years in a row ever for oil & gas activity. 14 of the permits issued thus far in 2015 are for pilot & horizontal combinations and should really only count as one. The numbers through 2015 continue to support RMP’s forecasts and analysis of Michigan oil & gas activity. With only 104 permits issued in November, it’s still very likely 2015 will be the slowest year in Michigan oil & gas history. 1931 currently holds the record as the slowest year for permitting in Michigan history at 111 permits issued.
According to the US Census Bureau, petroleum as a percentage of the US trade deficit is still at 13.7% even with major production increases in oil production due to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Michigan produces less than 5% of the refined oil products purchased by Michigan consumers. Michigan is ranked 19th in crude oil production in the United States out of 31 producing states. Collective US production of oil from all 31 producing states supplies about only half of the crude products US consumers purchase. The US only holds 2.2% of world crude oil reserves. Recent increases in US production of crude because of technological advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are certainly remarkable and have made a large dent in imported petroleum, but we still only produce about half of the crude oil processed in US refineries. Oil as an energy source is simply not sustainable even at the currently boosted levels of production. The USA will perpetually remain in a Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – November 2015”
It’s time to review the first six month’s production of subsurface hydrocarbons in the Michigan Basin as most operators have now reported results. The theme of this report is that things aren’t always as predictable as you think and that it’s important to always be diligent in measuring the data because the data can Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Production Report January – June 2015”
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”
