Columbus Energy told investors that it looks forward to the next stage of continuous gas injection at the Inniss-Trinity project, in Trinidad. Inniss-Trinity is being progressed as a pilot project, testing enhanced oil recovery within a mature field by Columbus Energy with partner Predator Oil and Gas.
Last year state oil company Heritage Petroleum gave the go ahead for the pilot project as Columbus operates under an incremental production service contract (IPSC) for the field. The company previously indicated that Predator will fund and help plan the CO2-enhanced oil recovery pilot project.
According to a release from Predator, the project remains on track for revenue, and, “encouragingly” the project economics are still attractive at US$20 per barrel oil (WTI crude).
Trinidad like most countries has implemented restrictions on movement of people for non- essential work and these policies will remain in place for at least the next few weeks. The Inniss-Trinity Field does remain operational and oil field personnel have been issued with passes to travel to and from the field.
The company stated that it is has injected more CO2 into AT-5X as part of initiating Phase 2 of the CO2 EOR pilot project and has observed encouraging downhole pressure build-up.
The remote access data gathering system that was put in place before Coronavirus struck allows Predator to monitor real-time pressure data and to adjust injection pressures and CO2 injected volumes remotely through the company's CO2 EOR operating personnel in the field. The next step is to inject CO2 at even higher pressures and on a continuous basis and Predator's CO2 provider is currently working to achieve this objective as quickly and safely as possible working under the current revised HSE protocols.
Predator are progressing with desktop work and approvals processes to further develop its ability to increase the volume of CO2 supply to the CO2 EOR operations using only our existing in-country equipment and field site for CO2 equipment layout.
The company has indicated that it is also importing spare components to ensure there is some ability to continue operations without being delayed waiting on replacement components should the need arise during the early period of the Coronavirus emergency.
Directors of the company indicated that they are encouraged by progress to date, despite a very challenging global environment and see that this is an opportune time to gather more technical and reservoir engineering data and to prepare for an expansion of CO2 EOR operations both within the Inniss-Trinity field and to other fields in Trinidad, which have been identified as being potentially attractive for pilot CO2 EOR operations.
According to the release, the company has developed a viable template for CO2 EOR projects and has achieved some recognition of its Intellectual Property rights in respect of this template. It makes commercial sense for the company to focus on developing these new opportunities to a stage whereby they can be implemented to increase potential cash flow from CO2 EOR by gradually upscaling, with very low capital commitments as the market begins to strengthen as Coronavirus is addressed and ultimately defeated.
Positive cash flow at low oil prices will be critical during this transition period and the Company now has additional time to potentially expand CO2 EOR operations in Trinidad for very low capital investment and therefore potential for additional revenues.