Delhi Field spans Franklin, Richland and Madison parishes in northeast Louisiana and has produced since its 1944 discovery from Tuscaloosa and Paluxy sands. Its history divides cleanly into three phases: primary production from 1944 to 1953, waterflood from 1953 to 1980, and tertiary carbon dioxide flooding beginning in November 2009 across roughly 14,000 gross unitized acres. Cumulative recovery of about 190 million barrels is estimated to be less than half the original oil in place in the targeted reservoirs, which is what made the field an attractive CO2 candidate.
Delhi was discovered in 1944 in the North Louisiana Salt Basin, and primary production ran until about 1953 across Franklin and Richland parishes with extension into Madison. Subsurface studies of the Delhi area were published within a few years of discovery, reflecting how quickly the field became a significant north Louisiana asset. Leasing across the delta farmland created the mineral and royalty ownership pattern that persists today, with interests reserved in ordinary land transactions and divided repeatedly through eight decades of Louisiana successions.
Waterflooding took over from about 1953 and ran through roughly 1980, sweeping the Tuscaloosa and Paluxy sands and extending field life well beyond what primary depletion would have allowed. By the time the flood wound down, cumulative recovery stood near 190 million barrels — estimated to be less than half the original oil in place in the targeted reservoirs. That remaining oil, combined with access to carbon dioxide supply from central Mississippi, is precisely what made Delhi a candidate for tertiary recovery.
The CO2 phase began in November 2009 under Denbury Onshore, supplied by a dedicated pipeline running from the Mississippi CO2 system into Madison and Richland parishes. Roughly 14,000 gross acres are unitized. The field also has a documented commercial dispute history: Evolution Petroleum, which holds a working interest of roughly a quarter in the unit, litigated with Denbury and settled in 2016 for a cash payment plus additional interests. ExxonMobil acquired Denbury in 2023; current operatorship should be confirmed from present records.
Delhi produces from the Lower Cretaceous Paluxy Formation and the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa in the North Louisiana Salt Basin. Both are sandstone reservoirs, and the Paluxy in particular has been the subject of dynamic reservoir characterization work supporting flood management, because internal layering and permeability contrast control how injected fluid moves through it. The trap is structural, associated with the basin’s salt-influenced framework. Understanding which sand a given tract produces from matters, since the CO2 flood has been managed zone by zone rather than as a single undifferentiated injection.
Delhi is one of the more closely managed CO2 floods in the Gulf Coast region. Carbon dioxide is delivered by pipeline from the central Mississippi supply and injected into the Tuscaloosa and Paluxy sands, where it becomes miscible with residual oil and mobilizes volumes that waterflooding left behind. Injection began in November 2009 across roughly 14,000 gross unitized acres, and dynamic reservoir modeling has been used publicly to guide pattern management. Flood pace depends on CO2 availability, capital and price, and can change with ownership, so current status is worth verifying.
Delhi royalty and mineral interests sit inside a unitized CO2 project, which means your payments reflect unit performance and your interest is governed by unit terms rather than by a single well. Louisiana mineral law adds its own wrinkles, including prescription of nonuse for unleased mineral servitudes. Valuing an interest here requires reading the unit and the succession record, not applying a multiple to a check. We buy minerals and royalties in Franklin, Richland and Madison parishes and provide free written offers.
County-level well data, production charts, and selling guides for the counties this field spans:
Unitization pools tracts across the field so production is allocated by a participation factor rather than by which wells sit on your land. You share in unit output, and unit terms govern how costs and volumes are handled. For a CO2 flood this is essential, because injection and production wells serve the whole pattern. We review the unit agreement before pricing any Delhi interest.
Denbury Onshore developed and operated the CO2 flood, Evolution Petroleum holds a substantial working interest, and the two settled a commercial dispute in 2016. ExxonMobil acquired Denbury in 2023. Those are working-interest matters and generally do not change a royalty owner’s entitlement, but they do affect who pays you and how the field is managed. We confirm current status from Louisiana records.
Louisiana treats mineral rights as a servitude rather than a separate estate, and an unused mineral servitude can prescribe back to the landowner after ten years without production or drilling. Successions rather than probate govern inherited interests. These differences affect what you actually own and what documents a sale requires, and we work through them with you before any offer is finalized.