Simulation of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abstract Nowadays, the experts in biotechnology and oil engineering cooperate to improve the production of oil reservoirs. A large portion of the world energy consists of non-renewable fossilized fuels; the primitive methods in oil recovery just make 8 to 30 percent of oil reservoirs available. So, the owners of these reservoirs are trying to increase efficiency via using newer methods with lower costs. One of the most important new methods in oil recovery enhancement is the microbial method (MEOR), which is based on utilizing special microbes to increase the production of oil wells. In this project a computer software is presented for simulation of microbial enhanced oil recovery. In other words, an oil reservoir is simulated for applying microbial method. Firstly mass balance equations of reservoir fluid (water & oil), bacterium, metabolite and nutrient are droved and analyzed considering the experimental data and mathematical relations of a MEOR model. This information is applied on one of the oil reservoirs in Persian Gulf. The equations are simulated by applying numerical methods (finite element, successive overrelaxatoin) using a computer software (MATLAB). The effectively of application by this method for enhancement of oil recovery is assessed through analyzing the graphs resulted from this software which includes the profiles of concentration (water, oil, bacterium, metabolite and nutrient), pressure and also plots of oil and water saturation, mobility of water and oil. The obtained results show that through applying this method, pressure of reservoir that is the main factor will increase linearly leading to enhanced oil recovery from reservoir. Furthermore, this method can be used as a pattern in analyzing other reservoirs in which MEOR is used for enhanced oil recovery.