The Metro Detroit Oil Patch?

[Lowell]

Our region has long had fossil fuel exploration primarily natural gas. This week's Crain's Detroit Business has an extensive article on the recent "Oil and gas exploration on rise in metro Detroit". With northern Michigan wells getting tapped out oil exploration is increasingly focusing on southeast Michigan.

"Oil and gas exploration company executives and state regulatory officials say permit requests to drill new wells have been moving over the past two years toward Southeast Michigan. The Detroit area has yielded modest oil deposits at relatively shallow depths, making them cheap to drill and easier to spot with new seismic imaging technology.

Exploration companies have obtained 20 permits for wells in the five-county region of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston so far in 2014, out of 86 total drilling permits statewide, according to data from the state Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals, a division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

The same five-county region accounted for 29 total permits in all of 2013, out of 205 permits issued statewide. "

The article gives and interesting overview of the history and current efforts including a couple success stories.

Some Southeast Michigan wells produce quite well. One Jordan and West Bay joint venture in Troy, near the Michigan State University Management Education Center, cost less than $3 million to drill in 2002 but has produced about $60 million of natural gas since then, with MSU and the Michigan Department of Transportation as an adjacent landowner splitting about a one-sixth royalty or $10 million on sales since then, Brower and Gibson said.

Another well, at Kensington Metropark in Milford Township, has made about $13 million since the 1990s, Gibson said. Explorers usually negotiate a royalty of one-eighth to one-sixth of the revenue that wells produce in oil or natural gas, pro-rated to their share of the property covered by the lease.

He estimates West Bay has drilled about 50 sites in Southeast Michigan since 1986, of which about half have since wrapped production and are now plugged. The company reports more than a dozen active wells in Oakland County and about a half dozen each in Macomb and Wayne; it could start drilling the new well in Scio Township under its July 3 permit within 60 to 90 days.

[DetroitPlanner]

I produce a lot of natural gas. I increase production with trips to Lafayette Coney Island or White Castle. I wonder if I can get $60 million for it?

SE Michigan is prime for these resources, though it is easier to get in other parts of the state. I am much more interested in alternative energy coming from solar, wind, and nukes. Solar seems to have the least impact of the three, but we also need to factor in batteries for storing here need to be larger and give off some emissions.

Planning for nukes is fun. You need a lot of planning for these including escape routes, access to water, storage, and disposal. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy energy source though.

I have also heard about folks trying to harness wave action for energy similar to wind but for hydro without dams. Seems very expensive, but hey there is always water moving around here!

[JBMcB]

I produce a lot of natural gas. I increase production with trips to Lafayette Coney Island or White Castle. I wonder if I can get $60 million for it?

No joke, if reducing CO2 is your primary concern, natural gas gives you the most bang for your buck. I'll double check the statistic, but I read that UPS converting their fleet to CNG will reduce CO2 levels more than every wind farm and solar installation in the US combined [[assuming they are replacing coal fired power plants) Hydraulic fracturing has had problems, but the new wells use a fraction of the groundwater and capture nearly all of the wastewater produced.

Planning for nukes is fun. You need a lot of planning for these including escape routes, access to water, storage, and disposal. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy energy source though.

The new plants China is rolling out are basically meltdown-proof. They can go for weeks without any coolant. GE is prototyping a mini-reactor the size of a bus that doesn't need any coolant at all. You can seal it in a concrete vault and it will power a small city for a decade without any maintenance or refueling. When it's out of fuel, you recycle the whole machine - the total unusable waste created is the size of a baseball.

What people don't get is that the reactors that have had issues in the past, like Fukushima and 3 Mile Island, were built in the 60's based on technology developed in the 50's. These things were designed using slide rules and graphing paper. The technology has advanced a bit since then.

[Jimaz]

... Planning for nukes is fun. You need a lot of planning for these including escape routes, access to water, storage, and disposal. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy energy source though....

Recent Fukishima status: Fukishima: No End in Sight for Nuclear Meltdown | Interview with Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear

[FlyOnTheWall]

SE Michigan is prime for these resources, though it is easier to get in other parts of the state. I am much more interested in alternative energy coming from solar, wind, and nukes. Solar seems to have the least impact of the three, but we also need to factor in batteries for storing here need to be larger and give off some emissions.

Being that I'm a snowbird 5 months of the year and using only solar for electricity 5 months of the year, I pretty much stay on top of solar requirements. The thing that keeps me from even considering solar here in Michigan is that the solar array must be about two and a half times larger here than in Arizona. Batteries, about the same size for the same power usage.

But then again I use a lot less power in AZ than here also. Boy do I love that solar power in the winter months. Batteries and panels paid for and now the electric is free. Love it.

[DetroitPlanner]

Recent Fukishima status: Fukishima: No End in Sight for Nuclear Meltdown | Interview with Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear

So you contaminate a city every once in a while..... Is that a bad thing? We have plenty of room for the residents of Fukushima! Why I can even find them a nice farm near Monroe, make them feel at home right away.