Successful case studies of MEOR

Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery, or MEOR, is a complimentary and more efficient way of extracting oil. Although not everyone in the oil industry believes in the method, there are a number of successful case studies that support the idea that MEOR could help recover billions of barrels worth of oil that is so far unrecoverable by traditional oil extraction methods.

MEOR has been tried and tested in many countries around the world, including Australia, China, Hungary and Malaysia, with varied results. But whilst no general conclusions can be made just yet, hundreds of case studies have so far proved that MEOR can be successful.

ONCG TERI Biotech Limited, or OTBL, is a North American based biotechnical solutions company that has used MEOR in a number of projects in Georgia,North America and in India. Used to extract oil from ageing old fields, many times OTBL saw the amount of oil extracted increase three fold. Overall, their success rate using MEOR reached just over 80%.

Currently, only two offshore MEOR field trials are known to have taken place, one in Malaysia and the other in Norway. It is believed that Statoil are the only company to use MEOR offshore, found at Norne (oil field) in the Norwegian Sea. But because one MEOR's biggest limitations is temperature, it is unlikely that the offshore use of MEOR will grow just yet because the wells are too deep and therefore too hot.

In 2009, Titan Oil Recovery Inc. (who operates their own MEOR Titan Process) revealed that 'On average, with the best currently available technology, only 35% to 45% of the original-oil-in-place in an oil field can be recovered.' Also, the mature fields' production is declining between 4-15% every year, meaning that whether or not people agree with the viability of MEOR, something has to done quick about reaching the last of the world's oil reserves.


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