Oil Supply: Peak Oil and Microbes

In 2005 when very few oil people believed in Peak Oil, or more simply stated – few people believed that oil supply could no longer keep up with oil demand, or oil production had reached its maximum level of production, or, if you prefer, more than half of the world’s original oil supply has been produced. At that time, there were energy experts who claimed (and were being heard at high levels) that Peak Oil was really a “myth” and that the problems regarding having adequate oil supply were “above the ground and not below the ground”. I would estimate that less than ten percent of oil people believed in Peak Oil at that time.

Now six years later, I would estimate (based on my personal research, study, and readings) that well over fifty percent (50%) of oil professionals now believe in Peak Oil. The financial crisis of 2008 and the attendant high gasoline prices that followed have brought the Peak Oil debate to the forefront for serous discussion – finally. Also, today there are more countries speaking out on the potential long-term impact that the consequences of Peak Oil will have on their countries and the world. People are finally addressing how best to mitigate the serious impact and consequences that the world is starting to experience as the result of not having enough affordable oil to meet their needs. Countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Sweden and many others have acknowledged Peak Oil (at least in concept) and are finally attempting to put into place programs that will address the consequences of Peak Oil in a serious way by investigating some viable solutions. Time will tell whether others will also be become convinced of the seriousness of Peak Oil and accept it as a significant and imminent challenge. Let’s hope this happens.

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
The debate about using microbes to recover oil has been ongoing for over 70 years as to whether Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is a viable and economical way to recover a portion of the oil that is trapped in global oil fields (in total, estimated to be about 6.2 trillion barrels of oil). Until just recently, many in the industry would have said the following about MEOR – “Old technology that doesn’t work”. The stigma of “snake-oil” has persisted over the years. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery—just as Peak Oil–has largely been in the category of “myth” to many oil veterans.
In reality, there was a good reason for saying this because prior MEOR efforts to recover oil using microbes simply didn’t work well, or if it did, the results (recovering oil) were sporadic, unreliable, and simply a “hit or miss” proposition that created a very negative reputation for MEOR in the oil industry.

For the past 22 years and after almost $30 million of investment, Titan Oil Recovery, a developer of new proprietary organic systems for oil recovery has been quietly refining the technology and based on actual and substantial field treatment results documentation, it is clear that organic oil recovery is real and it does work.

In order to explain what has been accomplished over the past four-years in working with some major oil companies, substantial documentation, for the very first time, presents facts and findings that support that organic oil recovery technology does work and it is being effectively used by some oil companies in the United States and Canada. The data provided proves beyond any reasonable doubt that this unique technology works.

Summary of oil field applications – July 2007 to December 2010
The following summary details field applications since the current technology’s R&D stage during the1990’s. It encompasses 106 applications on 15 oil fields.
100% success rate on water Injection well treatments.

• 80% success rate on oil production well treatments
• 55 wells with 88 treatments showed an average production increase of 127%. 3 wells treated are still in the pending category (results still in progress) See table below.
• 98 treatments of the 106 treatments are completed – the remaining 8 treatments are in the pending category (results still in progress on three producers and five injection wells)
• The organic oil recovery process creates the desired oil production response in oil fields
• Delivers excellent financial results for field operators
• All 106 treatments cost operators a total of $2,616,194. Incremental bbls recorded from these treatments were 105,511 bbls valued at $8,440,913, for a 223% return. 8% of these treatments are still in the “pending” stage.
• Results from two fields treated with full-field applications–the ideal and recommended protocol—are highlighted in the charts below. Because of the extraordinary results, both operators wrote Society of Petroleum Engineers papers validating the success of the process. These are available on request or at the SPE website (SPE Paper #124319 for Husky Energy and SPE Paper #129742 for Venoco Inc.).
• The average cost per incremental bbl for these two fields was $7.81 per bbl. This compares to $20-50 per incremental bbl for other Enhanced Oil Recovery methods.

Two Fields with Full Field Applications of Organic Oil Recovery

The Canadian Field operator paid $324,650 and recorded 44,984 incremental bbls from treated wells valued at $ $3,598,667. Cost per incremental bbl was $7.21.

The California Field operator paid $224,295 and recorded 25,307 incremental bbls from treated wells valued at $2,024,567. Cost per incremental bbl was $8.86.

The table below shows that organic oil recovery creates the desired oil production response in oil fields by releasing trapped oil from the reservoir. This table indicates the performance as measured by an increase in oil production rate comparing pre-treatment rate with post- treatment “peak rate” measured by operator well tests. Note that a 47% increase in production rates on Injector treatments was achieved with an average of only two treatments per injection well (less than the optimum treatment sequence.

Production Rate Increase Performance
Note: Pending results (results still in progress) are all from injection well applications, which generally take from three months to one year for the benefits of the process to reach the surrounding producing wells.

Although there doesn’t appear to be any direct connection between Peak Oil and Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery except that both involve oil, both concepts are being debated daily in the energy world. The common denominator is oil supply. I believe there is rapidly approaching serious condition when oil-supply will no longer keep up with oil demand–Peak Oil. As organic oil recovery technologies achieve wider and wider use with proven success, the process will become a widely accepted “norm” as an adjunct to waterflooding in appropriate types of oil reservoirs. Then, organic oil recovery will become an accepted process to mitigate the serious impact of Peak Oil as it, too, becomes a more widely accepted concept.

Oil Voice