Projects

Lenox Project, Michigan Basin

Portrush has a 22.5% working interest in the Lenox project located in the Michigan Basin. The Michigan Basin occupies an area of approximately 122,000 square miles underlying Southwestern Ontario in Canada, and the State of Michigan. The basin contains extensive belts of organic reefs composed of carbonate rocks (limestone and dolomite), formed under shallow seas in the Silurian period. The reefs are commonly very porous, forming good reservoirs, primarily for the entrapment of natural gas - although some also have oil potential. These gas-filled reefs are the principal prize for explorationists in the basin. Underlying Ordovician carbonate formations offer secondary targets of high quality crude oil.

Hydrocarbon production from Silurian reefs in the Michigan Basin began in 1889 in Essex County in Southwestern Ontario. Subsequently approximately 122 gas pools have been discovered and developed in the Southwestern Ontario region of the Michigan Basin alone. The Canadian Gas Potential Committee in its 1997 report "Natural Gas Potential in Canada" estimated that the play in Ontario contains a remaining undiscovered gas potential of 150 billion cubic feet (bcf). Comparable estimates are not available for Michigan State, but the gas potential could easily be significantly greater because of the larger area of the basin there.

The pinnacle reef fairway in Northern Michigan extends for approximately 160 miles and averages about 60 miles in width. The trend is prospective for both high-quality light oil and natural gas, applying proven seismic and drilling technologies. Shell Oil, who have been active on the trend for many years, claim that it is the most profitable onshore play in their history.