Absence of Connate Water in Michigan Reef Gas Reservoirs—an Analysis: GEOLOGICAL NOTE

ABSTRACT It has been known for more than a decade that reefstored gases do not gain water content during storage. Two years ago the implication of the absence of connate water initiated an investigation. A paper in 1979 set forth the possibilities that connate water was absorbed by anhydrite in the reef rock or alternately that fresh connate water vaporized and the vapors diffused to the dense brine at the base of the reef. These two mechanisms to explain the absence of connate water are analyzed; each infers a particular geologic history.