海角社区

Getting More Oil Out of the Ground: Smarter, Cheaper, and in a More Efficient and Environmentally Sound Way

Through a recently patented 海角社区 technology known as gas-assisted gravity drainage, 海角社区 petroleum engineer and National Academy of Inventors senior member Dandina Rao sees a 鈥渢remendous opportunity鈥� for Louisiana to recover more oil from depleted, abandoned reservoirs and tight shale, including the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, which stretches across the entire middle of the state spanning 23 parishes鈥斺�渁 huge resource鈥� estimated to hold 7 billion barrels of untapped oil.

鈥淲ith the current method used in industry today, 90% of the oil is left behind in the rock,鈥� Rao said. 鈥淪o, we decided to think out of the box and came up with an entirely different process.鈥�

Rao鈥檚 method can recover 65-99% of the oil trapped in tight shale and is significantly more affordable than the most commonly used industry method, which relies on injecting pure carbon dioxide at very high pressures. His improved process can instead source mixed flue gas from industrial emissions鈥攊ncluding refineries and other petrochemical facilities鈥攎aking good use of a cheap and plentiful resource (that otherwise would go to waste and impact the environment) for more efficient oil extraction.

鈥淚ndustrial carbon capture combined with enhanced oil recovery provides a golden opportunity for our state where our petroleum engineers can use their skills and expertise in pipelines, drilling, and reservoirs to get a lot more oil out of the ground and do it in a way that鈥檚 good for the environment. Louisiana has all of the components necessary to do this, and 海角社区 is the only entity with the ability to bring all of the pieces together for us.鈥�

Ray Lasseigne, co-owner and president of TMR Exploration in Bossier City, with an ongoing C02-enhanced oil recovery project in Livingston Parish