A pilot study on large-scale microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) in Baolige Oilfield

Industrial application of microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) has been hindered by a lack of large-scale data-based guidelines for process design and operation. In the present work MEOR was investigated in both laboratory and large-scale oilfield studies. Six microbial strains were initially isol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International biodeterioration & biodegradation 2018-02, Vol.127, p.247-253
Main Authors: Ke, Cong-Yu, Lu, Guo-Min, Li, Yong-Bin, Sun, Wu-Juan, Zhang, Qun-Zheng, Zhang, Xun-Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crude oil
Data processing
Data recovery
Enhanced oil recovery
Flooding
Industrial applications
Large-scale study
Microbial enhanced oil recovery
Microbial strains
Microorganisms
Nutrient concentrations
Oil and gas fields
Oil field equipment
Oil fields
Oil recovery
Pilot projects
Studies
Viscosity
Water flooding
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Summary:Industrial application of microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) has been hindered by a lack of large-scale data-based guidelines for process design and operation. In the present work MEOR was investigated in both laboratory and large-scale oilfield studies. Six microbial strains were initially isolated from Baolige Oilfield in China. Laboratory based investigation showed that all six strains were able to decrease the oil viscosity. Two mixtures of strains exhibited greater reduction effects, i.e., 35% and 56%, respectively. The optimal nutrient concentration was found to be 1.0%. The mixtures of strains tested in laboratory core flooding based MEOR also confirmed their greater MEOR performance, i.e., MEOR levels of 9.1% and 13.2%, respectively, compared to that of any single strain ranging from 7.0% % to 8.7%. Using the strain mixture that had been selected under the laboratory based conditions, the pilot field study achieved a significant MEOR: 210,000 tons of crude oil produced over 43 months from 169 production wells. The research results obtained in this work including both laboratory and field studies can be potentially applied in other oilfields with similar geological and physical conditions, for large-scale MEOR process design and operation. •All isolated 6 microbial strains were able to enhance oil recovery.•Optimal operational conditions for MEOR were identified in laboratory.•The highest oil recovery enhancement reached 13.2% in a laboratory model.•A large-scale pilot study achieved 210,000 tons of crude oil cumulatively produced.
ISSN:0964-8305
1879-0208
DOI:10.1016/j.ibiod.2017.12.009