The Michigan Technological University, Western Michigan University, and Jordan Development Company, LLC will implement a demonstration project to use recycled CO2 to produce bypassed oil from Silurian pinnacle reefs in the Michigan Basin. The project proposes to capture CO2 from gas-shale production streams that would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere, compress the gas and re-inject it into nearby reefs. A horizontal well drilled at the base of the reef will be used to recover hydrocarbons. A novel aspect of the project is to recover the CO2 as it is produced with the bypassed oil production and re-inject it into the same reef. Following treatment of the one reef, the pressurized CO2 will be available for injection into another reef. In addition to establishing a protocol for reefal injection, the project will also inventory and prioritize candidates for future CO2 treatment in the Michigan Basin.

To view image in a high-resolution pdf, click here: Belle River Mills 3D Reef

Belle River Mills 3D reef presentation, showing permeability voxels 25 md and greater (green), porosity voxels 13% and greater (red), rock types (blues and green), and transparent crestal reef structure surface. View is looking northwest, 30 degrees above horizontal. The best permeability and porosity is located in the upper wackestone (dark blue, lower reef) and lower boundstone (light blue, mid-reef) rock types. The stromatolite rock type (medium blue, upper reef) generally has poorer quality permeability and porosity. Storage and deliverability capacities of this gas storage reservoir could be optimized using this type of 3D visualization analysis. Vertical exaggeration is 10X. Six inset tomography images show the core permeability, core porosity, and gamma ray at two levels in the reef - in the wackestone and upper boundstone. Inset (upper right) model shows color-filled top of reef structural contours and landgrid overlays with no vertical exaggeration. Also shown is the trace of a potential horizontal well designed to encounter the best permeability areas based upon the log curve amplitude slicing and 3D-imaging and tomography.