Modelling of microbial enhanced oil recovery application using anaerobic gas-producing bacteria

Svetlana Rudyk*, Pavel Spirov, Yanina Ivanova

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) methods apply injection of bacteria to depleted oil reservoirs to produce oil, which had remained unrecovered after the conventional methods of production. The ability of thermophilic anaerobic bacteria to produce gas as the main mechanism in potential MEOR in high salinities of 70-100 g/L was investigated in this study. Maximum gas production of up to 350 mL per 700 mL of salty solution was produced at a salinity of 90 g/L stably during 2-4 days of experiment. The experimental results were upscaled to the Snorre Oilfield, Norway, and simulated using ECLIPSE software for 27 months. The best scenarios showed that the increase in oil recovery on average was at 21% and 17.8% respectively. This study demonstrated that anaerobic bacteria used in biogas plants could be an attractive candidate for MEOR implementation due to their ability to withstand high temperature and salinity, and produce gas in large volumes.
Original languageEnglish
Article number272-278
Pages (from-to)272-278
Number of pages7
JournalPetroleum Science
Volume11
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • ECLIPSE simulation
  • Microbiological enhanced oil recovery

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Fuel Technology
  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Geophysics
  • Geology
  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Economic Geology

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