Microbial EOR – A Review on its Effectivity in the Past Present for Improving Oil Recovery from Declining/Mature Assets

摘要

In today's world oil market, economic production of hydrocarbons requires carefully engineered recovery projects of increasing technical complexity and sophistication. As the search for additional oil continues, recovery of known reserves must be improved if the goal of avoiding shortages is to be met. One of the improved recovery methods is the microbiological enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). MEOR techniques have become established as a cost-effective and economical solution for the declining production oil reserves. The technology is a potential alternative to other EOR/ IOR methods, since, it has been implemented in a number of oil producing companies and has proved it self not only form economics point of view but also from having lesser environmental impact. In this paper, effectiveness of MEOR techniques while making a comparison of it's applications in the past and in present is discussed. MEOR techniques which involve injection of microorganisms to EOR have the potential of achieving the goal of cost reduction which is an important factor in adopting any EOR method. Some interesting facts are also given which could be very helpful in draining large proportions of oil, thus minimizing the supply and demand difference in today's “energy hungry world”.