Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

237 Pages·1989·17.771 MB·English

by  Erle C. Donaldson, George V. Chilingarian and Teh Fu Yen (Eds.)

Developments in Petroleum Science, 22
microbial enhanced
oil recovery
rnformation & Li~);"ary ServicE':
!nst;· i.;"te r: ~ C·~.:;;·i :.: (~ E~~:;-; ::"c. ;ng
f·· er;:=. -!• .••••' ..! 3tt l,:i ", i 'jer~ i ty
I<icc:,,'~=':l, C .. :r;~
Ediflbur.;h EH 14 4AS
DEVELOPMENTS IN PETROLEUM SCIENCE
Advisory Editor: G.V. Chilingarian
l. A.G. COLLINS
GEOCHEMISTRY OF OILFIELD WATERS
2. W.H. F'ERTL
ABNORMAL FORMATION PRESSURES
3. A.P. SZILAS
PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORT OF OIL AND GAS
4. C.KB. CONYBEARE
GEOMORPHOLOGY OF OIL AND GAS FIELDS IN SANDSTONE BODIES
5. T.F. YEN and G.V. CHILINGARIAN (Editors)
OIL SHALE
6. D.W. PEACEMAN
FUNDAMENTALS OF NUMERICAL RESERVOIR SIMULATION
7. G.V. CHILINGARIAN and T.F. YEN (Editors)
BITUMENS, ASPHALTS AND TAR SANDS
8. L.P. DAKE
FUNDAMENTALS OF RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
9. K. MAGARA
COMPACTION AND FLUID MIGRATION
10. M.T. SILVIA and E.A. ROBINSON
DECONVOLUTION OF GEOPHYSICAL TIME SERIES IN THE EXPLORATION
FOR OIL AND NATURAL GAS
11. G.V. CHILINGARIAN and P. VORABUTR
DRILLING AND DRILLING FLUIDS
12. T.D. VAN GOLF-RACHT
FUNDAMENTALS OF FRACTURED RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
13. J. FAYERS (Editor)
ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
14. G. MOZES (Editor)
PARAFFIN PRODUCTS
15A. O. SERRA
FUNDAMENTALS OF WELL-LOG INTERPRETATION, 1
THE ACQUISITION OF LOGGING DATA
15B. O. SERRA
FUNDAMENTALS OF WELL-LOG INTERPRETATION, 2
THE INTERPRETATION OF LOGGGING DATA
16. RE. CHAPMAN
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
17A. KC. DONALDSON, G.v. CHILINGARIAN and T.F. YEN (Editors)
ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY, I
FUNDAMENTALS AND ANALYSES
18A. A.P. SZILAS
PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORT OF OIL AND GAS, A
FLOW MECHANICS AND PRODUCTION (second completely revised edition)
19A. G.V. CHILINGARIAN, J.O. ROBERTSON Jr. and S. KUMAR
SURFACE OPERATIONS IN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION, I
19B. G.V. CHILINGARIAN, J.O. ROBERTSON Jr. and S. KUMAR
SURFACE OPERATIONS IN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION, II
20. A.J. DIKKERS
GEOLOGY IN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION
21. F. RAMIREZ
APPLICATION OF OPTIMAL CONTROL THEORY TO ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
Developments in Petroleum Science, 22
microbial enhanced
oil recovery
Edited by
ERLE C. DONALDSON
School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, University
of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, U. S.A.
GEORGE V. CHILINGARIAN
Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, California, U.S.A.
and
TEHFUYEN
Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Inform;Jtlofl (:.; Ij'. . '-:li"j ...• '. . ~.~
Ui1l S itu~,~ ...· f c-;~ " .. :.: ~:':; " .... -=:~ .. lcg.
He:';~) ..... ' :Jtt L' . i,,:<::"·<:.1~1
l<icc~i~Ln, (_:_.. ·ri~
Edinburgh EH 14 4AS
ELSEVIER - Amsterdam - Oxford - New York - Tokyo 1989
ELSEVIER SCIENCE PUBLISHERS B.V.
Sara Burgerhartstraat 25
P.O. Box 211,1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Distributors for the United States and Canada:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.
655, Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10010, U.S.A.
LIBRAR't (F C(NjRESS
LIbrary cf 20ngrcss Cataloglng-In-Publlcatlon Data
MIcrobial enhanced 01 I recovery I edited by ErIe C. Donaldson. George
V. Chi Ilngarlan, Teh Fu Yen.
p. C~. -- IDeveloplllents In petroleum scIence; 22)
Includes blbllog~aphies and Indexes.
ISBN 0-444-4286~-6 : fl 180.00 (est,)
1. Secondary recovery of oi I. 2. Petroleu~--Mlcrobto)ogy.
I. Donaldson, ErIe C. II. Chilingarian. George V. . 1929-
III. Yen. Ten Fu, 1927- IV. Series.
TN871 . /-1446 1998
665.5'3--dc19 87-27777
CIP
ISBN 0-444-42866-6 (Vol. 22)
ISBN 0-444-41625-0 (Series)
© Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1989
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or trans
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording other
wise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Elsevier Science Publishers B. V./Physical
Sciences & Engineering Division, P.O. Box 330, 1000 AH Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Special regulations for readers in the USA - This publication has been registered with the Copyright
Clearance Center Inc. (CCC), Salem, Massachusetts. Infonnation can be obtained from the cee about
conditions under which photocopies of parts of this publication may be made in the USA. All other
copyright questions, including photocopying outside of the USA, should be referred to the publisher.
No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a
matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.
Printed in The Netherlands
Dedication
This book is dedicated to microbiologists whose innovative research helped to
guide the direction of research of this newly developing aspect of enhanced oil
recovery:
Dr. Dan Bubela, Australia
Dr. Edward Grula, U.S.A.
Dr. James Zajic, U.S.A.
Dr. S.l. Kuznetsov, U.S.S.R.
Dr. Claude E. ZoBell, U.S.A.
and to
Armand Hammer, Fred L. Hartley and Robert Wycoff
for their important contributions to the petroleum industry.

VII
PREFACE
Crude oil is the major basic energy mineral for most industrial countries. It is
apparent that there is no economical abundant substitute for crude oil. In much of
the world additional supplies of crude oil will be developed by exploration and
development of as yet undiscovered reserves. In the United States few such
opportunities exist. Ultimately this will be true for all producing areas. For such
areas, crude oil production will be sustained only by applying enhanced oil recovery
(EOR) technologies. These EOR technologies are complex and resource exploitation
using them will require more skilled personnel and substantial capital resources.
Many of the EOR technologies are at advanced states of development, yet they have
not yet been widely applied.
One such technique is microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). The use of
microorganisms to increase the recovery of oil from petroleum reservoirs was
suggested in 1926 by Beckman and fundamental experiments and patents were
developed by ZoBell by 1947. In spite of promising results in the decades of the 50's
and 60's, these methods were not further developed or widely tested. Renewed
interest in microbial methods began 10 years ago and has resulted in many field
applications with mixed results because the biological, chemical and physical
processes that occur in petroleum reservoirs where in-situ metabolism occurs are not
well understood and the reasons for success could not be identified and easily
repeated. As importantly, the reasons for failure could not be isolated and thus
avoided in subsequent field applications.
Tills book reviews the substantial body of scientific and technical understanding
that has been developed about the phenomenological processes. It does not pretend
that the \Vork is finished but organizes and summarizes work that has been done in
by grouping it in important topical areas. The authors are actively involved in the
study of microbes and microbial processes that can have impacts on production,
transportation and storage of petroleum. Consequently, the book is more than a
review of the literature, it contains the latest developments in MEOR.
Three of the authors have died since their contributions to this monograph were
submitted. B. Bubela, E.A. Grula and J.E. Zajic were MEOR pioneers and I am
pleased that the editors have dedicated this volume to their memory. Their contribu
tions and enthusiasm did much to rejuvenate and stimulate interest in this field.
R.M. KNAPP
University of Oklahoma
....
----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
T. BAN Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan
D. BRYANT Department of Food Technology, University of J/Iinois, Urbana, Ill., US.A.
B. BUBELAt Baas Becking Geobi%gical Laboralory, P.o. Box J 78. Canberra, A. C. T,
Australia
G.V. CHILINGARIAN School of Engineering University of Southern CniJjornia, University Park, Los
Angeles, Calif, US.A.
l.W. COSTERTON Department of Microbiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta. . Canada
E.c. DONALDSON College of Engineering School of Petroleum and Geologiwl Ellgineering. Univer
sity of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., US.A.
E.A. GRULAt Department of Microbiology, Oklahoma State Universify, SIll/waleI'. Okla. .
U.S.A.
M.M. GRULA Departmenl of Microbiology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla. .
US.A.
A. GURROLA Department of Bi%gy, The University of Texas at E/ Paso, EJ Paso. Texas,
US.A.
T.R. JACK NOVA Husky Research Corpora ri on, 141} 25th Avenue, N. W, Co/gary. Alta.,
Canada
L.K. lANG Department, of Chemical Engineering, California State UniverSity, Long Beach,
Cab!, USA.
G.E, JENNEMAN Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman,
Okla., U.SA.
M. KENAGA Department of Food Technology, University ()f illinois. Urbana. Ill., USA.
R.M. KNAPP College of Engineering, School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering. Univer
sity of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., U.S.A.
R. PENNINGTON Department of Microbiology, Oklahoma State University, Slil!wmer, Ok/a.,
US.A.
H.H. RUSSELL Department of Microbiology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla.,
U.S.A.