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Enhanced Oil Recovery Using Indigenous Microbiome of High Temperature Oil Reservoirs

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Abstract

Crude oil is a primary energy source used for economic expansion across the world. Secondary recovery processes employed by industries to recover oil from oil wells leave behind 70% of the oil trapped in marginal and deleted zones of reservoirs. To recover the oil from depleted zones, microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) tertiary processes were introduced, which involve the production of metabolites from the indigenous microbiome. In this study, the indigenous microbiota was identified as Marinobacterium sp., Silvanigrella sp., Petrothermobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus sp., Nitrincola sp., Halomonas sp., Uncultured Roseovarius sp., and Phaeobacter. Further, the secondary metabolites such as volatile fatty acids (ethanol, acetone, and acetate), biomass, gases (CO2, CH4), and biosurfactants were estimated through gas chromatography and FTIR spectroscopy. Once stable microbial growth was attained in the baltch media, it was optimized through response surface methodology (RSM) to minimize the process cost. The optimized media with 9 g/L of molasses, 1.75 g/L of sodium bicarbonate, and 1.25 g/L of ammonium chloride showed a significant impact on metabolite production. Additionally, core flood studies to simulate field studies were performed that represented that TeriK-1 brought a significant increment of 18.9%, which makes it suitable for MEOR field implementation. This study is one of its kind where the indigenous thermophilic sp. was successfully established and is capable of producing the secondary metabolites that aid in the MEOR process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for providing the infrastructure facilities (Gas chromatography, anaerobic culturing facilities) for conducting the present investigation. The authors would also like to acknowledge the facility of Teri Deakin Nano-Biotechnology Center, Gurugram (FTIR, and SEM). The authors declare that this study was funded by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (AMD/IRS/MM/MISC/03/2016-18) Institute Of Reservoir Studies, Ahmedabad.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Biotechnology, Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology Division, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Darbari Seth Block, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, , New Delhi, 110003, India

    Neha Sharma, Meeta Lavania & Banwari Lal

  2. Institute of Reservoir Studies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Ahmadabad, India

    Vipin Kukreti & Dolly Pal Rana

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  1. Neha Sharma
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Correspondence to Meeta Lavania.

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Sharma, N., Lavania, M., Kukreti, V. et al. Enhanced Oil Recovery Using Indigenous Microbiome of High Temperature Oil Reservoirs. Curr Microbiol 80, 179 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-023-03272-6

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