Abstract
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery has been known to the industry for decades and yet the research has only been applied to a selected few pilots where analysis of the in situ Microbes was made. The advent of Bio-Genetic Mapping of Microbes has introduced us to various strains of bacteria that can be genetically altered to produce alkali and surfactant needed in chemical floods in much higher concentration than previously thought. We conducted some initial experiments from which the enhancement of recovery factor is significant. The results and data generated were then used in STARS™ a compositional reservoir simulator to model the effect of various by-products (Polymer, Surfactants) generated by microbes on the recovery process. The surfactants generated lead to reduction of Interfacial tension from 30 to 0.1 dynes/cm2, the polymers were found to have properties as seen in natural polymers like Xantha and were resistive to salinity as well. The detailed report would be summarized in the paper. It is interesting to note that the different species of microbes used were anaerobic and was suited to survive at temperature of up to 600° F thus making it possible for them to survive harsh environments. Thus an overall promising outlook providing alternative to expensive chemical floods is being presented with special application to depleted reservoirs.
