Field Experience from a Biotechnology Approach to Water Flood Improvement

Bauer, Bradley Gene; O'Dell, Ryan Jeffery; Marinello, S.A.; Babcock, J.A.; Ishoey, Thomas; Sunde, Egil

doi:10.2118/144205-ms

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The first response was seen in early August, a 31-week response time that was four times longer than a typical HE biological EOR project (Bauer et al 2011). The first response was seen in early August, a 31-week response time that was four times longer than a typical HE biological EOR project (Bauer et al 2011).…”

Section: Average Daily Oil and Water Rate (B/d)mentioning

confidence: 89%

Technology Update: New Microbial Method Shows Promise in EOR

Havemann¹,

Clement²,

Kozicki³

et al. 2015

Journal of Petroleum Technology

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Technology Update Tertiary oil recovery technologies can extend the economic life of maturing waterflooded reservoirs. This article describes the results from a biologically based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology that has improved waterflood efficiency by increasing oil production and decreasing the decline rates, thereby significantly increasing the recovery factor. Traditional tertiary recovery processes such as thermal methods, CO2 flooding, and chemical flooding require significant changes to field infrastructure and usually involve relatively high operating expenditures of up to USD 50 per incremental barrel of oil produced. Called Activated Environment for the Recovery of Oil (AERO), the technology used in this project represents a breakthrough in biologically based EOR by using a continuous injection of inorganic nutrients to stimulate indigenous microbes. The use of continuous injection (water and nutrients), which differentiates AERO from most previously attempted microbial EOR methods, prevents production disruptions and makes it easier to accurately measure, assess, and document the production benefits. The key advantages of this method are Decreased decline rates, enabling significant reserve gains Increased oil production Low capital expenditures Low operating costs Rapid response Biological EOR uses inorganic nutrients to activate indigenous microbes, those native to the field. Because no organic carbon is introduced, the microbial growth is restricted to the interface between the injection water and the oil, the carbon source for growing the microbes. The use of indigenous microbes is advantageous because they are perfectly suited to the local conditions and, unlike externally originated organisms, are neither costly to produce nor prone to rapid death in the reservoir and are thus in need of replacement. In addition, the concentrations of the nutrients required are relatively low, a major reason for the feasibility of continuous injection and stimulation. The technology is among the most inexpensive tertiary recovery methods available and requires only minimal changes to waterflood facilities for deployment. It can likewise be used with relatively minor modifications in fields without an operating waterflood, such as fields with a natural waterdrive or very mature fields where waterflooding has ceased. The biological EOR technology is producing a growing body of positive results, such as the following example from Canada.

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Section: Average Daily Oil and Water Rate (B/d)mentioning

confidence: 89%

Technology Update: New Microbial Method Shows Promise in EOR

Havemann¹,

Clement²,

Kozicki³

et al. 2015

Journal of Petroleum Technology

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“…(Rassenfoss, ). A proprietary MEOR system has been tested at field scale in Southwest Kansas, an Albertan oilfield and a Californian oilfield by a partnership of energy companies and a technology company developing MEOR technologies (Bauer et al ., ; Havemann et al ., ; Karicherla et al ., ). The results have been promising, but not completely predictable and in the Kansas field the enhanced production was primarily limited to a single well.…”

Section: Grand Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Biotechnology 2020; microbiology of fossil fuel resources

Head

Gray

2016

Microbial Biotechnology

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SummaryThis roadmap examines the future of microbiology research and technology in fossil fuel energy recovery. Globally, the human population will be reliant on fossil fuels for energy and chemical feedstocks for at least the medium term. Microbiology is already important in many areas relevant to both upstream and downstream activities in the oil industry. However, the discipline has struggled for recognition in a world dominated by geophysicists and engineers despite widely known but still poorly understood microbially mediated processes e.g. reservoir biodegradation, reservoir souring and control, microbial enhanced oil recovery. The role of microbiology is even less understood in developing industries such as shale gas recovery by fracking or carbon capture by geological storage. In the future, innovative biotechnologies may offer new routes to reduced emissions pathways especially when applied to the vast unconventional heavy oil resources formed, paradoxically, from microbial activities in the geological past. However, despite this potential, recent low oil prices may make industry funding hard to come by and recruitment of microbiologists by the oil and gas industry may not be a high priority. With regards to public funded research and the imperative for cheap secure energy for economic growth in a growing world population, there are signs of inherent conflicts between policies aimed at a low carbon future using renewable technologies and policies which encourage technologies which maximize recovery from our conventional and unconventional fossil fuel assets.

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“…This technology has been successfully implemented by Statoil offshore Norway and in the Stirrup field in southwest Kansas, USA. Highlights of this technology are minimum to none capital investment with very low risk for implementation and high performance efficiency at low operational costs [74].…”

Section: Field Tests Applications Of Meormentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

Yernazarova¹,

Kayirmanova²,

Baubekova³

et al. 2016

Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (cEOR) - A Practical Overview

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The ever-rising global demand for energy and the issue of large volumes of unrecovered oil after primary and secondary oil production operations are driving the development and/or advancement of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. Conventional EOR processes include thermal, immiscible and miscible gas injection, chemical, and microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR), among others. This chapter provides an overview of MEOR including its history, strata microflora, mechanisms of MEOR for oil recovery, and a brief recount of field MEOR applications.

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Field Experience from a Biotechnology Approach to Water Flood Improvement

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Technology Update: New Microbial Method Shows Promise in EOR

Technology Update: New Microbial Method Shows Promise in EOR

Microbial Biotechnology 2020; microbiology of fossil fuel resources

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

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