OIL AND GAS PLAYS OF THE MICHIGAN BASIN, SOUTHERN ONTARIO Terry Carter, Consulting Geologist London, Ontario 1 Ontario Petroleum Industries Oil and Natural Gas 1250 oil wells, 1200 gas wells, annual production 400,000 bo, 5.7 bcf natural gas, 100 different producers 5 wells/yr, 27,000 well records Hydrocarbon Storage in Geological Formations 270 bcf natural gas in 35 depleted reservoirs, 275 wells 22 million bbl refined petroleum products in 71 solution-mined caverns at Sarnia-Windsor area refineries/petrochemical plants – 95 wells Salt Solution Mining 250,000 tonnes/yr, 18 wells PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 2 Industry Participants Oil & Gas Historically and presently exploration and production is dominated by small (mostly), Ontario-based operators History of periodic interest from large Calgary-based and international companies Small companies are low-cost, maintain operations through down-cycles, generate new plays, raise local capital Local companies have grown into large national and international corporations with long-term economic impact; Imperial Oil, Union Gas, and former McColl-Frontenac (Texaco Canada), British-American Oil Co. (Gulf Canada) and White Rose (purchased by Shell Canada) Hydrocarbon Storage Natural gas storage dominated by one large +billion$ company All cavern storage operations owned by large +billion$ petrochemical companies Salt solution mining Two operations owned by large corporations PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 3 Ontario Oil and Gas History & Firsts • 1858 - first commercial oil well in North America at Oil Springs (and first oil spills) • 1866 – first salt solution mining well at Goderich • 1870 – first oil exports to U.S • 1873 – first export of technology – first Canadian drillers leave for Indonesia • 1889 - commercial gas production at Kingsville and Welland • 1890 – first export of natural gas to U.S. • 1913 – first offshore well in Lake Erie • 1915 – first subsurface injection of natural gas for storage • 1914 – Ontario Natural Gas and Oil Wells Act • 1985 - year of peak gas production • 1995 - year of peak oil production PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 4 Geological Setting -Precambrian crystalline rocks of Canadian Shield form core of the North American continent, > 1 billion years old -Sedimentary rocks deposited on top of these crystalline rocks around edges of the continent -Oil and gas production only in Michigan & Appalachian basins Bedrock Geology of Southern Ontario PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 6 Michigan Appalachian Basin Basin Paleozoic Stratigraphy of Southern Ontario PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 7 Oil and Natural Gas Fields of the Michigan and Appalachian Basins PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 8 Oil and Natural Gas Plays of the Michigan Basin, Ontario DEV – structural traps in Devonian carbonates and sandstones SAL – reefs and structural traps in Silurian carbonates; CLI ORD – hydrothermal dolomite traps in Trenton and Black Groups (U. Ordovician) PLAY BY PLAY CAM EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 9 Oil and Natural Gas Fields of Ontario PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 10 Oil and Natural Gas Fields of the Michigan Basin, Ontario PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 11 Ontario Oil and Gas Plays Play Description Depth Cum. m. production DEV Structural traps in fractured Devonian 100 - 150 45 mmbo carbonates and sandstone – structural domes related to differential salt dissolution SAL Silurian carbonates 300 - 700 15 mmbo - pinnacle, incipient and patch reefs 748 bcf - fault traps 250 bcf gas storage capacity CLI Lower Silurian sandstones basin-centre 150 - 500 0.05 mmbo stratigraphic trap 507 bcf ORD Ordovician carbonates – hydrothermal 800 - 900 25 mmbo dolomite reservoirs 43 bcf CAM Cambrian sandstones – stratigraphic 700 - 1200 5.3 mmbo traps, fault traps 32 bcf PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 12 DEV: Devonian structural traps SAL: Silurian carbonates ORDOVICIAN HYDROTHERMAL DOLOMITE Shale Potential Kettle Point (Antrim) Marcellus COLLINGWOODCollingwood – -Blue Mtn BLUE MOUNTAIN POTENTIAL SHALE PLAYS Kettle Point Marcellus Collingwood- Blue Mountain Thickness 30-105 1-12 10-50 Max depth m. 143 225 1000 Area km3 9500 4700 70,000 TOC 3 – 15% 1 – 11% 1 – 11% DRILLING 1955 - 2015 Total Wells 500 450 431 wells - 1956 400 350 300 Lake Erie 126 wells - 1980 250 200 150 100 50 0 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 18 Bcf 20 25 10 15 0 advances in seismic and offshore drilling offshore seismic and in advances to technological corresponding 1960,19851940, in 1917, peaks Gas 5 1917 SAL 1906 1906 Production Gas Annual 1910 – 1914 reef Tilbury 1918 1922 1926 1930 1934 CLI 1938 1942 1946 1950 1954 SAL 1958 - 1962 seismic 1966 1970 1974 1978 Erie Lake 1982 1986 - 1985 peak gas peak 1985 1990 2015 1994 1998 2002 2006 EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASINMICHIGANTHE EXPLORING 2010 2014 PLAY BY PLAY BY PLAY 19 140 LAKE ERIE DRILLING 1960 TO 2016 Total Wells 120 126 wells in 1980 100 80 60 40 20 0 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 20 discovery of deeper plays, seismic and new exploration models new exploration and seismic deeper of plays, discovery to successive corresponding 1995 and 1966,1895, peaks in Oil barrels oil 2000000 1600000 1400000 1800000 1000000 1200000 600000 400000 800000 200000 Annual Oil Production 1863 Oil Production Annual 0 Year 1865 1871 1877 1883 DEV 1889 1895 1901 1907 1913 1919 1925 1931 1937 1943 1949 1955 SAL oil 1995 peak 1961 1967 - 1973 2015 1979 1985 ORD 1991 EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASINMICHIGANTHE EXPLORING 1997 2003 2009 PLAY BY PLAY BY PLAY 21 2015 Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Library • Not-for-profit centre for management of publicly accessible data on oil, gas, salt, hydrocarbon storage resources, and subsurface Paleozoic geology of Ontario • Industry-operated • Both free and fee-based access to data • 669 Exeter Road, London, ON • www.ogsrlibrary.com Data Resources • Petroleum well files 26,500 +20/yr • Scanned well file images 500,000+ • Drill cuttings 11,000 wells +20/yr • Drill core 1,100 +4/yr • Monthly production reports 40,000 +2,000/yr • Injection+disposal reports 10,000 +150/yr • Maps & Reports 2,500 +10/yr • Geophysical logs 21,000 • Oil and gas pool map • Journals, reprints, government reports • ArcGIS workstation • Digital petroleum well database • Oil, gas, water analyses, isotopic analyses • Deep groundwater maps 89 water type, 17 potentiometric 23 Digital Data: www.ogsrlibrary.com What Next? • Large unexplored areas in Ordovician • Undiscovered incipient reefs • Low drilling density in Huron County • Lake Huron reefs? • Conversion of more depleted gas pools to storage • Technological improvements in enhanced recovery from known oil reservoirs • Historic Devonian oil pools now account for 20% of Ontario annual production – flat production decline • New play concepts • Unassessed shale gas/oil potential • Excellent data availability at OGSR Library PLAY BY PLAY EXPLORING THE MICHIGAN BASIN 25 QUESTIONS? 26.