MADISONVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Navitas Land and Mineral, an oil and gas production company, today announced the completion of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operation in their Oakley Field located in Hopkins County, Kentucky. The goal of the process is to increase oil production while repurposing excess carbon dioxide (C02) in an environmentally responsible manner. The process has been tested in other Cypress Formations in the Illinois Basin with promising results.
“Now that the recovery process is complete, we expect oil production from this well to increase significantly,” said Dan Williams, Navitas managing director. “Our EOR method is among the most aggressive C02 projects in the state of Kentucky. It produces incredible results at a much lower cost than is typical for our industry.”
The EOR method employed by Navitas combines a C02 process called huff-and-puff with an ongoing C02 injection. Huff-and-puff is a well stimulation technique that involves injecting approximately 60 tons (17,000 gallons) of liquid C02 at a temperature of minus 100 degrees. The injection is allowed to “cook” for three to four days while the C02 changes to a gas and expands to many times its liquid volume underground. The process opens up the formation area, and is followed by an ongoing injection of C02 that creates near virgin formation pressures similar to the early days of the field’s operation in the mid 1980’s. With the advent of those near virgin pressures, Navitas hopes to see production levels close to when the field was first drilled.
Navitas Land and Mineral is an oil and gas exploration, development and production firm founded in 2009. The company draws on an internationally recognized team of geologists, engineers and executives with extensive oil and gas exploration and production experience, combined with corporate and financial expertise. Navitas acquires oil and gas assets of merit and develops them to their full potential, applying conventional drilling and enhancement methods as well as low-cost, non-conventional processes to dramatically improve oil and gas recovery. The company’s recovery efforts are focused on the Illinois Basin, an area encompassing southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky. The name Navitas is Latin for energy.