Microbial enhanced oil recovery

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a biological based technology consisting in manipulating function or structure, or both, of microbial environments existing in oil reservoirs. The ultimate aim of MEOR is to improve the recovery of oil entrapped in porous media while increasing economic profits. MEOR is a tertiary oil extraction technology allowing the partial recovery of the commonly residual two-thirds of oil, thus extending the life of mature oil reservoirs. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a biological based technology consisting in manipulating function or structure, or both, of microbial environments existing in oil reservoirs. The ultimate aim of MEOR is to improve the recovery of oil entrapped in porous media while increasing economic profits. MEOR is a tertiary oil extraction technology allowing the partial recovery of the commonly residual two-thirds of oil, thus extending the life of mature oil reservoirs. MEOR is a multidisciplinary field incorporating, among others: geology, chemistry, microbiology, fluid mechanics, petroleum engineering, environmental engineering and chemical engineering. The microbial processes proceeding in MEOR can be classified according to the oil production problem in the field: