Secondary and Tertiary Oil Recovery in the Michigan Basin

William B. Harrison, III, David A. Barnes, G. Michael Grammer, Beth A. Vanden Berg, and Abrahim M. Abduslam
Michigan Geological Survey, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI,
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Several Michigan formations with oil and gas production have had limited secondary or tertiary oil recovery activity. A total of 101 fields have had secondary or tertiary recovery activity, including the Middle Ordovician Trenton-Black River Formation (1), Silurian Niagaran pinnacle reefs (67); Middle Devonian Lucas Formation in the Richfield and Detroit River “sour zone” pools (20); Middle Devonian Dundee, Reed City, and Rogers City carbonates (12) and Late Devonian Berea Sandstone (1). There are approximately 1200 oil fields in Michigan, so these 101 fields represent only about 8% of all the oil fields. Average primary recovery calculated from 50 of these fields is 25.6% of original oil in place (OOIP) and secondary or tertiary recovery from 47 fields averages 12.9% of OOIP. Total cumulative oil production from 77 of these fields averages 35.0% of OOIP. There have been 851 injection wells drilled or converted to injectors from producers or dry holes, with 568 of these wells still active through 2011. Fifty-two fields have active injection at this time. Six fields currently inject natural gas, seven inject carbon dioxide (CO2), and two inject other substances. The other 37 are all water flood fields

Much of Michigan’s post-primary/enhanced oil recovery (EOR) efforts have centered on the Niagaran pinnacle reefs in northern and southern Lower Michigan. A total of 67 Niagaran reef fields have some record of EOR activity. Forty-three were developed as water floods, eleven as natural-gas reinjection, four as a combination of natural gas and water, seven as CO2 injection, and two are of an unknown recovery process. Some projects were short lived, lasting only a few years, whereas others have continued for one, two, or even three decades. A number of the Niagaran reef water flood and gas reinjection projects are no longer active. Some fields have been plugged and abandoned and some have stopped injecting but continue to produce oil, often at stripper levels. Recovery factors for primary production in these reefs are highly variable, ranging from 7.1% to 47.6% and averages 27.2% of OOIP. The enhanced production recovery factor for Niagaran-reefs ranges from 1.5% to 47.7% and averages 16.4% of OOIP.

Considerable additional potential exists for secondary or tertiary recovery in many Michigan oil fields. Approximately 400 of Michigan’s 1200 oil fields have already produced at least 500,000 barrels of oil per field. Over 200 of these are Niagaran reef fields. Newer Niagaran reef fields typically have intact infrastructure and modern log, well and core data. Older Devonian fields are typically plugged out, contain lost well locations and have few modern logs and little additional geological or production information critical for modern geological characterization studies.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90154©2012 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, 22-26 September 2012