A research consortium consisting of members of the Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences at Michigan Technological University, the Department of Geology at Western Michigan University and Terra Energy Inc. (Traverse City, MI) and supported in part by the U. S. Department of Energy, was formed in an effort to help companies recover bypassed oil from the shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs in the Michigan Basin. Total hydrocarbon production in the Michigan Basin has surpassed 1 billion barrels (Bbbls) and total unrecovered reserves are estimated at 1-2 BBbls. However, hydrocarbon production in Michigan has fallen from 35 MM/bbls/yr in 1979 to about 10 MM bbls/yr in 1996. In an effort to slow this decline, a field demonstration project designed around using a horizontal well to recover bypassed oil was designed and carried out at Crystal Field in Montcalm County, MI . The project had two goals: 1. to test the viability of using horizontal wells to recover bypassed oil from the Dundee Formation, and 2. to characterize additional Dundee reservoirs (29) that are "look alikes" to the Crystal Field, As much as 85 percent of the oil known to exist in the Dundee Formation in the Michigan Basin remains in the ground as bypassed oil. Early production techniques in the 137 fields were poor, and the Dundee was at risk of being abandoned, leaving millions of barrels of oil behind. Crystal Field in Montcalm County, Michigan is a good example of a "worn out" field. Crystal Field was once a prolific producer which had been reduced to a handful of wells, the best of which vii produced only 5 barrels per day. The demonstration well drilled as a result of this project, however, has brought new life to the Crystal Field. Horizontal drilling is one of the most promising technologies available for oil production. The new well was completed successfully in October of 1995 and has been producing I00 barrels of oil per day, 20 times better than the best conventional well in the field. Estimated recoverable reserves for the new well are 200,000 barrels of oil. The success of the well has spawned a "miniboom" in drilling in the Dundee Formation. As a direct result of the project, 9 new horizontal wells have been permitted for drilling in Crystal Field, 2 have been drilled and 20 to 30 horizontal wells have been permitted in geologically similar fields in the Dundee Formation. Further development in Crystal Field is expected to produce an additional 2 million barrels. If other abandoned Dundee fields are redeveloped in a similar manner, the additional oil production will probably be about 80 to 100 million barrels, worth about $210 million in tax revenues alone. This is oil from existing U.S. fields with proven production, not from riskier new fields in environmentally sensitive regions or those controlled by foreign nations.