Enhanced Oil Recovery

(EOR) methods.
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)

Name: Aban John Robert

Matrix ID: 17887
PE, Final Yr 1st Semester.

Introduction.
Majority of the worlds energy comes from crude oil. On start up, extraction is
through conventional recovery techniques.
With time, reservoir energy will be depleted and oil production cumulative
becomes uneconomical after extraction of easy oil.
Luckily, EOR has potential to overcome this obstacle and paves way for
efficient oil recovery.
Includes techniques for oil extraction after the application of primary and
secondary recovery methods.

MEOR
MEOR is one of EOR technique under chemical flooding.
Involves utilizing nutrients and suitable anaerobic bacteria to mobilize
residual oil from reservoirs.

Objective: To maximize oil recovery and extend life of the wells

(Field).

General Mechanism of MEOR

MEOR advantages
Injected bacterial and nutrients are in expensive and easy to
obtain and handle.
Little input of energy to produce MEOR agents.
MEOR products are biodegradable.

Disadvantages
Injectivity loss due to microbial plugging of the wellbore.
Identification of the right microbial strains, adaptable to
harsh reservoir conditions.
In-situ concentration of nutrients for bacterial growth.

Conclusion
MEOR is a cost effective and efficient process to optimizing recovery
of residual oil from depleted reservoirs.
The technique can be performed via mechanisms that:
-reduces crude viscosity to ease oil mobility.
-modifies reservoir permeability to increase sweeping efficiency.
-reduces oil water IFT
Above all, products from MEOR are biodegradable.

References
Steven, L. & Thomas, P. (2000). Reservoir Engineering Analysis of
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery: SPE annual Technical
Conference an Exhibition, Dallas Texas.
Murray, G., Anthony, Y., Julian, F. (university of Alberta) & Harvey,
W. (university of Calgary) (2008). Potential Microbial Enhanced
Oil Recovery Processes: A critical Analysis, SPE Colorado, USA.
Chang, H., Abdulrazag, Z. & Khaled, E. (2009). MEOR
applications: Microbes enhanced oil recovery through various
mechanisms, Oil & Gas Journal.