Using Recent Advances in 2D Seismic Technology and Surface Geochemistry to Economically Redevelop a Shallow Shelf Carbonate Reservoir: Vernon Field, Isabella County, M, Class III

In this project a consortium consisting of Cronus Exploration (Traverse City, MI), Michigan Technological University (Houghton, MI) and Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) proposed to develop and execute an economical and environmentally sensitive plan for recovery of hydrocarbons from an abandoned shallow-shelf carbonate field that is typical of many fields in the U.S. Midwest. This is a 5-year project that will use surface geochemistry as a tool to reduce risk in locating and producing hydrocarbons in Class II fields. The project will develop new techniques for measuring hydrocarbon gases in the soil horizon to locate new and bypassed oil in the shallow-shelf carbonate environments typified by the Dundee and Trenton Formations of the Michigan Basin (Fisher et. al., 1988). In Phase I of the project, the consortium proposes to re-develop the Vernon Oil field located in Vernon Twp, Isabella County, Michigan and produce both bypassed hydrocarbons from the original field and to locate and produce extensions of the original field