Page 309 - Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery: Microbiology and Fundamentals 297

10.4 HISTORY

The inherent risks associated with common tertiary recovery methods such as
economic costs, toxicity, and damages to the environment propelled the attention
toward finding new technics, which are economically feasible and environmentally
friendly [31]. Bastin [67] was the first researcher who reported microbial life in the oil
fields. The idea of incorporating biotechnology to enhance oil recovery was suggested
for the first time by Beckman in 1926 [68]. He indicated that it is possible to incorpo-
rate microorganisms to free the oil droplets from porous media. Nothing notable was
performed between 1926 and 1940. After two decades, ZoBell [69,70] was the pio-
neer researcher, who conducted tests to evaluate the bacterial release of oil from the
oil bearing materials and received a patent [71] on his process. This patent was about
injecting Desulfovibrio hydrocarbonoclasticus as well as nutrients into a well to improve
the oil recovery. This researcher mentioned five different mechanisms in his patent.
After this, broad experiments by Beck [72] based on the ZoBell culture failed to sup-
port it and yielded just inconsistent results. The author stated that ZoBell culture
would be unserviceable in the field. ZoBell continued his studies in this field and
could receive another patent [73] in 1953. In this patent, ZoBell employed the genus
Clostridium along with other hydrogen-producing microorganisms. It is noteworthy to
mention that both patents by ZoBell were based on laboratory results.
Another patent [74] was received by Updegraff and Wren in 1953 employing
Desulfovibrio and possibly a symbiont bacterium. The researchers considered injection
of molasses with the bacteria to promote the growth rate as they noticed that con-
sumption of crude oil by the microbes is too slow. Four years later, Updegraff received
another patent [75] proposing injection of a gas-producing facultative or obligate
anaerobe along with a water-soluble carbohydrate such as sugar. This patent was not
based on the field experiments too.
The Socony Mobil Research laboratory performed the first MEOR field trial in the
Lisbon field, Union County, Arkansas in 1954 and reported marginal success due to the
increase in the wells oil follow rates [16,31,76 88] and the analyses denoted the com-
plexity of using microbes. However, Volk and Liu [32] mentioned that the pioneering
field studies were performed in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s by Claude
ZoBell and his group at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
The starting point of MEOR field trials in former Soviet Union backs to the 1960s.
The Soviet scientist [89] specified that there are some bacteria in the oil deposits, which
can degrade the oil to gases such as CH 4 ,H 2 ,CO 2 , and N 2 [16]. Encouraged by this,
some Eastern European countries such as former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and
Romania performed extensive research activities and some field trials [31],the details of
which are available in literature [90 103]. In Romania, several MEOR field tests were