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Formation Tops & Elevations Download

Contact:  Office of Geological Survey


          Formation tops are the depths in a well (measured in feet below a reference elevation) at which formations are found in the subsurface, except for the glacial drift formation. In the case of the glacial drift, the "top" is actually the bottom or base of the drift. This "base of drift" is the depth of the bedrock surface at the well.

          All wells do not have data
     Wells that have a well type of LOC (location) or a status of TP (terminated permit) or PW (permitted well) have not been drilled or if drilled, the permittee hasn't reported the data to OGS yet. Older wells may have data in paper files that has not been entered into the OGS well database.

          Explanation of Data
     The Formation Tops & Elevations Download consists of a Microsoft Access database containing the following five tables: Elevations, Formation codes, FormationTops, Method Obtained, and Reference point codes.

In the Elevations table, Column 1, Location_ID is the well API number. Elev_Gr is the elevation of the ground surface at the well, Elev_KB is the drilling rig's kelly bushing elevation, Elev_DF is the elevation of the drilling rig (or derrick) floor.  Column 5, Ref_Tops, gives a code identifying which elevation was used as the reference elevation in picking the formation tops for the well identified by the API number.

The Reference point codes table lists Definitions for codes used in the Ref_Tops column in the Elevations table.

The Formation codes table contains American Association of Petroleum Geologists codes (AAPG_Cd) for Michigan rock formations and the full name of the formation. The OGS publication, "Stratigraphic Lexicon for Michigan" and its companion chart "Stratigraphic Nomenclature for Michigan" provide an extensive compilation of stratigraphic terms.

The Method Obtained table lists Definitions for the various sources of formation top data.

The FormationTops table lists formation top information by API number. The table can be sorted, filtered, or queried by various factors utilizing Microsoft Access tools. For example:  Using a well's API number, the formation tops for that one well can be listed together.

Other downloads "Locations - Oil & Gas wells - download database" and "Production of Oil and Gas wells - download" are available and can be used in conjunction with the Formation Tops & Elevations download for advanced stratigraphic and/or production investigations.

Because it is difficult if not impossible to load a file bigger than 5MB on the DNRE server, this file is being made available on a faster ftp server at:
  ftp://ftp.deq.state.mi.us/deq-outgoing 
    in the Geological_Survey_Data folder. If you need to log in:
  Username= deq-public-ftp
  Password= Jumbl355#

This site works.  If you can't connect, usually a pop-up blocker or a company firewall is stopping it, or it could be something on your computer.  Contact your IT person to fix this, or take a laptop to a nearby wi-fi hot spot and you'll be able to connect.  We can't help you fix this.  All we can do is check to see that the site is not temporarily down. 

After two weeks, the file may be automatically deleted.  Contact John McTiernan mctiernanj@michigan.gov  to have it restored.

If you questions about the technical information used in the formation tops table please contact Ronald Elowski elowskir@michigan.gov.

(Important:  Copy the file to your own computer before trying to open it.  It will not open from the ftp server.)

The date the file was created will be in the file name: ogs-oilandgas-production-all-YYYY-MM-DD.zip
If you do not have Microsoft Access, you can use the OGS Online database. Formation top data is located under the 'Well Information' tab, then under the 'Well Formations' tab.

Assett 143855


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