A Relook at Microbial Approach as a Potential Sustainable Hydrocarbon Production Technology

Sustainability initiatives have gained significant attention in recent years, driven by the accelerating energy transition. However, fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas, still have major roles to play in meeting global energy and consumer products demand. Hydrocarbon producers have been more vigilant in lowering greenhouse production, with carbon capture, utilization and storage thrusted to the forefront of the industry. This trend pushed greener technology and operational efficiency agenda to complement increase in hydrocarbon recovery. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a tertiary oil recovery technology utilizing micro-organisms to facilitate, increase or extend oil production from reservoirs (Abd Karim et al., 2001). PETRONAS first attempted feasibility study at laboratory scale, followed by well stimulation mode field trial with mix results (Abd Karim et al., 2001; Sabut et al., 2003). This development led to expanded research and development (R&D) project to study feasibility of MEOR flooding mode. This paper presents an evaluation of microbial-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programs conducted by PETRONAS. Overall, it showed potential with mixed technical success but might require more work to scale up for a field application. Microbes are not a new focus area in the oil and gas industry, whether they contributed to favourable (microbial stimulation, EOR) and/or non-favourable (reservoir souring etc.) conditions. Microbial based technology is worth a re-evaluation since it can be considered one of the most environmental-friendly technologies available. This paper will focus on PETRONAS’ experience with microbial based technology studies overall program covering laboratory and pilot scale.