Saucier, the AAPG 's Explorer Correspondent, reported in late August 2024 that having successfully used microbial biotechnology for site remediation and gold recovery projects, a team of Australian and U.S. geoscientists and engineers are on a mission to apply the technology to in-situ oil and gas recovery- in perhaps its most promising way.
Injection well delivers a solution (bio-lixiviant) consisting of a project specific microbial community (developed from the native microbial community) along with food grade additives to meet the microbes nutritional needs. Recovery fluids are stripped of reservoir assets in the processing plant and re-injected into the reservoir with a top-up of microbes and nutrients (if required).
While microbial enhanced oil recovery has been around as a tertiary recovery method for decades, it hasn't yielded substantial results, said Jim Dirstein, a geophysicist with Auric BioRecovery.
"Historically, the industry has favored the application of lab-designed superbugs or adding nutrient-rich material to a target and hoping
for the best," he explained. "Unfortunately, this approach has been largely unsuccessful, and a more sophisticated approach is needed."
Dirstein and his colleagues presented a novel approach to in-situ MEOR for hydrocarbons at the International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy (IMAGE Conference) last month in Houston. They emphasized that by using specific types of microbes and a tailored in-situ recovery process, not only could yields be increased, but the need for hydraulic fracturing could be substantially reduced or eliminated.
The oil and gas industry has typically been slow to accept and adopt new ideas, however the use of MEOR appears to be growing. For example, a January 2024 report by Precision Business Insights valued the global MEOR market at $1.3 billion in 2023 and projected its growth at a significant compound annual growth rate of 12.1 percent From 2024-2030.
Some of its key players include: Weatherford International, Occidental Petroleum, Halliburton, Titan Oil, Chevron, BP, Shell and Schlumberger, according to various online market reports. Aside from oil and gas, other areas in the resource sector where microbes can play a key role are the remediation of cyanide and nitrates from spent leach heap mine sites. Not only would the microbial treatment mitigate heap toxicity, the simultaneous recovery of remaining gold and silver offers a very commercial bonus, Macculloch said. Flooded underground mine sites would be another logical application. Auric, which once operated as Pintail Technologies, is currently working on its fifth gold recovery project from spent leach heaps. Yet, microbial biotechnology is transforming these liabilities into profitable assets. Macculloch believes it can do the same for "black gold" and gas moving forward.
[Note: Did Dirstein or his colleagues have conversations or read some publications of senior uranium geologists still active in the industry? Geologists managing in-situ uranium recovery operations have been using 5-spot patterns for decades by inducing microbes (as biogeochemical stimulators) to release low-grade uranium back into solution using oxygen and CO2 piped onward to processing unit to produce yellowcake. These days, oil wells produce hydrocarbons and in-situ uranium recovery systems produce uranium with little surface disturbance and having no impact of the shallow aquifers, while deep sands are naturaly contaminated and unfit as an aquifer for drinking or agricultural uses. For more, see (here).]
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