Tag: oil & gas

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2016 Michigan Hydrocarbon Production Results – Full Year

The MDEQ publishes full year numbers for hydrocarbon production about 4 to 5 months lagging behind calendar date.  That means these 2016 full year numbers are a little late, but better late than never.  The good news is 2017 results will be ready in May of this year so full year results for 2017 will be just around the corner.

Michigan Natural Gas Production 2016

One of the things RMP talked about in October 2016 was Riverside LLC becoming Continue reading “2016 Michigan Hydrocarbon Production Results – Full Year”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – July 2016

This month a group calling themselves the MICATS staged a protest at Attorney General Bill Schuette’s home in Midland, Michigan.  The Detroit News has a story here.

For the record, I have never supported extremist groups or individuals like those in MICATS and neither has respectmyplanet.org.  I don’t know them, affiliate with them, or in any way condone what they did.  RMP supports as part of our stated mission the migration away from oil as an energy source.   RMP supports ending oil pipelines that traverse our Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – July 2016”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – June 2016

In this month’s cover photo a buzzard flies past the flare stack at the Wessel et Al 2-6A oil well in Hillsdale, Michigan (PN#58992).   Buzzards seem to love to congregate around oil wells as they await their next meal’s demise.   A buzzard circling a Michigan oil well is a fitting analogy for the June 2016 edition of RMP’s MOGM as we have seen few vital signs in Michigan’s oil economy so far this year.  RMP wrote throughout the year in 2015 how it turned out to be the slowest year in Michigan’s history for oil & gas well permitting.  RMP also wrote in 2014 that the forecast of activity in the coming years for oil production in Michigan was bleak; and that’s when prices were over $100/bbl.  As it turns out, the numbers continue to Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – June 2016”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – February 2016

Niagaran Flare Stack

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.

WordOfFaithOilWellComment1
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”

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Enbridge Line 5 Crude Oil Leak – North Straits Pump Station Near Lake Michigan Shoreline

The Enbridge Line 5 crude oil pipeline runs from Superior Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario.  Line 5 is a 30 inch diameter crude oil pipeline that is split into two 20 inch diameter pipelines at the North Straits Pump Station near St. Ignace.   The two 20 inch diameter pipelines proceed under the Straits of Mackinac about 1,000 feet apart reaching depths of 200 feet before reemerging in the lower peninsula.  The pipeline was commissioned in 1953 and has been in service for over 62 years.  As of December 2013, Enbridge increased the capacity of Line 5 to pump 540,000 barrels of crude oil per day.  This is 50,000 barrels of oil more per day than its previous capacity of 490,000 barrels of oil per day.  RMP has created an interactive “Line 5” Google Map that is embedded at the very bottom of this post if you want to skip right to the map or click here.

Map North Straits Pump Station
The North Straits Pump Station is located about 100 yards from the Straits of Mackinac on the northern shore of Lake Michigan at Point La Barbe in the upper peninsula.  The North Straits Pump Station is the last landmark of Line 5 before it dives into the Great Lakes freshwater system. Click any picture in this post to enlarge it and open a photogallery.

Enbridge Line 5 has recently been receiving more attention than it has in the past because the aging pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac present a major regional economic risk and an environmental risk to the Great Lakes freshwater system. Line 5 puts the Great Lakes freshwater system at risk of a cleanup that could potentially surpass the one billion dollar mark.  Economic losses could also occur in Continue reading “Enbridge Line 5 Crude Oil Leak – North Straits Pump Station Near Lake Michigan Shoreline”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Production Report January – June 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”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – September 2015

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”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – July 2015

Westerman 1-29HD1

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”

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Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – May 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. Follow this URL to see the well on our interactive map: http://www.respectmyplanet.org/public_html/site/pru_number/?pru=17795
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

If you’ve been paying attention to the clues over the past couple years, it is not surprising to hear of a Michigan well being fracture stimulated using CO2.   In 2012 we heard our first clue about CO2 when Governor Rick Snyder said “I am asking the Legislature to enact a law that will grant carbon dioxide pipelines the same legal standing as other Continue reading “Michigan Oil & Gas Monthly – May 2015”