Where will wells be drilled if oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes does occur in the U.S.?
Oil and gas resources in the U.S. are expected to be found beneath Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Reserves under the Great Lakes may be accessed offshore via vertical drilling or onshore via directional or horizontal drilling. Vertical wells are drilled directly into the lake bottom and extended vertically downward. Directional and horizontal wells are first drilled on the shore and then extended under the lake via an angled boring. The 13 oil and gas wells that were drilled in the state of Michigan starting in 1979 were all drilled via horizontal drilling. [BACK] • Has oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes been successful in Canada? Since 1959, there have been three oil spill incidents on the Canadian side of Lake Erie, of which only one was directly attributed to a drilling operation. There have been no reported oil releases from subsurface formations into overlying waters during any Canadian drilling or production operations. Approximately 2,200 vertical gas extracti
