Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

2013

Introduction: (I think we should start from meor instead).

Oil production is one of the most important industry in the world. The demand on oil increased since it considered one the source of energy especially in the Arabian gulf countries. Over the years most of the produced oil is the light type. Recently most the reservoir contains heavy oil. Heavy crude oil or extra heavy crude oil is any type of crude oil which does not flow easily. The difficultness of producing heavy oil is due to its high density, high viscosity, low API and high quantities of asphalting , metals and sulfur. Heavy oil is being producing first by secondary recovery which is a method used to increase oil recovery after the reservoir has approached economically productive limit by primary recovery mechanisms such as water flooding.Water is injected into a reservoir to obtain additional oil recovery through movement of reservoir oil to a producing well. It support the pressure of the reservoir,displace oil towards the production well.Almost 30% of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted by the primary recovery, but the water injection increases the recovery of the oil and keep the production rate of a reservoir over a longer period. For the second process to produce heavy oil is using EOR methods which depends on increasing the mobility of the oil in order to increase extraction.EOR classified as Chemical injection , Miscible ,Thermal , MEOR and combined method of EOR. MEOR(Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery) is one of the tertiary methods that increases mobility of oil . The process of MEOR depends on injecting specified types of microorganisms into a selected reservoir for the purpose of changing the properties of the reservoir and the oil in it .These microorganisms cause certain chemical reactions in oil and reservoir that lead to extract oil easily. In this type of EOR methods, microbes are injected into oil wells to produce harmless products such as biomass , surfactant , polymers , solvents acids and gases , all which help to increase the recovery of oil. These products help to mobilize the oil and facilitate oil flow. The start of the MEOR was in 1926 when Beckam suggested a microorganisms utilizationin the recovery of oil entrapped in porous media. Since then, huge numbers of investigations have been done, and reviewed. In 1947, ZoBell and colleagues set the basis of petroleum microbiology applied to oil recovery, whose contribution would be useful for the first MEOR patent granted to Updegraff and colleagues in 1957 concerning the in situ production of oil recovery agents such as gases, acids, solvents and biosurfactants from microbial degradation of molasses. In 1954, the first field test was carried out in the Lisbon field in Arkansas, USA. During that time, Kuznetsov discovered the microbial gas production from oil. From this year and until the 1970s there was intensive research in USA, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. The main type of field experiments developed in those countries consisted in injecting exogenous microbes. In 1958, selective plugging with microbial produced biomass was proposed by Heinningen and colleagues. The oil crisis of 1970 triggered a great interest in active MEOR 1|Page

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

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research in more than 15 countries.[1] From 1970 to 2000, basic MEOR research focused on microbial ecology and characterization of oil reservoirs. In 1983, Ivanov and colleagues developed the strata microbial activation technology. By 1990, MEOR achieved an interdisciplinary technology status. In 1995, a survey of MEOR projects in the USA showed that 81% of the projects successfully increased oil production, and there was not a single case of reduced oil production.[1] Today, MEOR is gaining attention owing to the high prices of oil and the imminent ending of this resource. As a result, several countries are willing to use MEOR in one third of their oil recovery programs by 2010 MEOR has different mechanism for improving oil recovery .Each products that the microbes produce has its own influence on the reservoir or/and oil properties such as reduction of oil-water interfacial tension, decreasing the viscosity of oil or degradation the long chain saturated hydrocarbon as can be shown in table (1) and (2) (I think no need in the introduction).
Microbial product Biomass Surfactants Example microbes Biomass Bacillus, Leuconostoc, Xanthomonas Acinetobacter, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Pseudomonas Bacillus, Brevibacterium, Leuconostoc, Xanthomonas Clostridium, Zymomonas, Klebsiella Clostridium, Enterobacter, Mixed Acidogens Clostridium, Enterobacter Methanobacterium Application in MEOR Selective plugging and wettability alteration Emulsification and deemulsification through reduction of IFT Injectivity profile and viscosity modification, selective plugging Rock dissolution for better permeability, oil viscosity reduction Permeability increase, emulsification Increased pressure, oil swelling, IFT and viscosity reduction

Polymers Solvents

Acids Gases

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Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

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Microbial product Gases (H2, N2, CH4, CO2)

Acids (low molecular weight acids, primarily low molecular weight fatty acids)

Solvents (alcohols and ketones that are typical cosurfactants)

Bio surfactants

Biopolymers

Biomass (microbial cells)

Role in enhanced oil recovery Reduce oil viscosity and improve flow characteristics _ Displace immobile _ Sweep oil in place _ Improve effective permeability by dissolving carbonate precipitates from pores throat. Significant improvement of permeability and porosity _ CO2 produced from chemical reactions between acids and carbonate _ Dissolve in oil reduce viscosity _ Dissolve and remove heavy, long chain hydrocarbons from pore throat (increase effective permeability) _ Involved in stabilizing and lowering interfacial. tension that promotes emulsification Reduce interfacial tension _ Emulsification promotion for increased miscibility Bio surfactants _ Reduce interfacial tension between oil and rock/water surface which causes emulsification; improving pore scale displacement _ Alter wettability _ Improve the viscosity of water in water flooding and direct reservoir fluids to previously unswept areas of the reservoir _ Improve the sweep efficiency of water flood by plugging high permeability zones or watermobility Physically displace oil by growing between oil and rock/water surface _ Reversing wettability by microbial growth _ Can plug high permeability zones _ Selective partial degradation of whole crude oil _ Act as selective and nonselective plugging agents in wetting, alteration of oil viscosity, oil power point, desulfuration

Some of the effects _ Improved oil recovery by gases _ Miscible CO2 flooding

_ Enhanced oil flooding

Emulsification promotion for increased miscibility

_ Microbial surfactant _ Flooding

_ Microbial permeability modification (selective plugging)

_ Same biopolymers

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Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

(I think no need in the introduction). (The following paragraphs should be more concise and contains all ways)

2013

Chemical surfactants are costly products and toxic to the environment. recently companies are considering about environment protection which lead to increase the demand on bio-surfactant products. Bio-surfactant has a high value because of its preferable characteristics such as low toxicity and high biodegradability, even handling extreme condition of temperature, salinity and PH. Bio-surfactant helps to increase the oil recovery by reducing interfacial tension and also by alteration of the wet ability of the reservoir rock. Reduction of interfacial tension help to mobilize oil and changing the wettability of the reservoir will release the more oil from the surface. Thermal injection is one the method of EOR.Thermal injection is the injection of heat that will change the physical and chemical properties of crude oil into the reservoir. One of the thermal injection is steam injection .It Is one of the methods of extracting heavy crude oil. There are two branches of this method to that will increase oil recovery. The first one is by increasing temperature in order to heat the oil and will decrease its viscosity so that it can flow easily through the formation up to the production wells. The Second branch is the physical displacement employed in a manner that is similar to water flooding .

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