Indonesia has officially declared its withdrawal from OPEC membership in September 2008 because of failing to meet its oil production quota as what is determined. For that reason, effective and environmentally friendly methods need to be applied in Indonesian reservoirs; one of them is Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). This method involves the knowledge of biotechnology and petroleum engineering and is aimed to improve oil recovery in old and marginal wells. This paper presents laboratory investigation of bacteria ability to live and alter crude oil physical characteristics in high-pressure condition of 250 psi and 500 psi, provided with a mathematical model for further analysis. The experiment was conducted in a special apparatus called conditioning cells, which is made of stainless steel. Data obtained from the investigation are then used to make a mathematical model and simulation for analysis and prediction. After 3-days of treatment by bacteria in high pressure condition, oil viscosity decreases by 11,27 % in 250 psi and 11,88 % in 500 psi; further investigation after 7-days showed that oil viscosity decreases by 22,48% in 250 psi and 20,70% in 500 psi. The IFT after 3-days of treatment by bacteria in high pressure condition decreases by 18,84% in 250 psi and 6,09 % in 500 psi; further investigation after 7-days showed that IFT decreases by 27,54 % in 250 psi and 9,33 % in 500 psi. The mathematical model shows that the maximum production of bacteria increases with the increase of the initial input of bacteria, and the higher the pressure is, the faster the bacteria growth is. It can be concluded that the bacteria are able to live in high pressure (piezophile bacteria) and give positive impact to the crude oil by decreasing its viscosity and reducing the IFT hence improve oil mobility. It is predicted that by applying this method Indonesia crude oil production can be improved or at least the production decrease can be slowed down.
Introduction
Having been exploited for more than 100 years, the oil production in Indonesia is now facing a very serious problem due to production declines (Yusuf et al., 1999). Indonesia has become a net oil importer since 2003 and in September 2008 Indonesia officially withdrew its membership from OPEC (Petrominer, 2008).
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