Scientific Presentation by Roland P. DeBruyn at the 2016 Pan American Mature Fields Congress: Feb. 17-18, Veracruz, Mexico
Oil and gas operators have used waterfloods for decades to improve recovery of remaining oil from older reservoirs once they have produced past their primary recovery phase. Over time, waterfloods become less efficient because the flood follows the path of least resistance, forming flow channels that leave large areas of the reservoir unswept and remaining oil in place.
Getting to the Unswept Oil: How BioEnhanced Petroleum Recovery (BioEOR) Boosts the Performance of Mature Waterfloods
Roland DeBruyn – Presenter at the 2016 Pan American Mature Fields Congress. DeBruyn is Transworld Technologies’ Vice President of Engineering and Implementation
Transworld Technologies Inc. (TTI-TransworldTechInc.com) Vice President of Engineering and Implementation, Roland DeBruyn, has been accepted to the 2016 Pan American Mature Fields Congress to present TTI’s biogenesis technology and how it improves flood performance and oil production in mature oilfields on waterflood.
Transworld approached the idea of improving the performance of legacy waterfloods by advancing the scientific understanding of sub-surface microbial activity and biogenesis within mature oil and gas fields. Of central importance was the scientific interpretation of complex microbial communities already living in many reservoirs under waterflood. Modern tools from the life sciences, including DNA intelligence and gene sequencing, coupled with years of laboratory studies of naturally occurring microbes from field samples, made it possible.
This research led to a new model of microbial enhanced oil recovery, based on an improved understanding of how native microbes react to specific formulation blends. Instead of introducing non-native microbes untested in a petroleum reservoir, TTI’s solution is to inject its patented formulation into reservoirs using the operator’s existing infrastructure to activate the microbial populations that are already present within the formation. This technique revolutionizes microbial EOR solutions and gave rise to BioEnhanced Oil Recovery technology.
“At TTI we start with a knowledge set and scientific methodology that allows us to match the formula to the reservoir. We leverage nature—that is a key difference between traditional MEOR and BioEnhanced EOR,” DeBruyn told Oil & Gas 360®.
Getting to Know the Microbes
DeBruyn said the key is analyzing the existing microbes first. Once identified, the science team at Transworld creates formulations customized to the specific metabolic needs of native microbes that already live in the reservoir. “After the formula is designed for the microbes in the formation, it’s just a matter of adding the right concentration of activators to the waterflood that’s already in operation,” DeBruyn said.
The customized formulation activates the existing microbes to create methane within the reservoir, the critical component for flow diversion. This allows the water to form new paths of water flow to redirect and extend the sweep into previously un-contacted portions of the formation. “The activated microbes give you access to new barrels of oil,” DeBruyn said.
How Expensive Is It?
“There is zero up-front cost to the operator,” Karl Weber, President of Transworld Technologies told Oil & Gas 360®.
“Not every field is a candidate for BioEnhanced EOR,” Weber said. “So we come in and perform a detailed field evaluation on our dime. Once our scientists determine a field is a candidate for the technology, we create the custom formulation and then essentially piggyback off the existing water injection facilities, with a small, temporary footprint on site.
“Our approach is a true pay-for-performance model,” Weber told Oil & Gas 360®. “Typically, we expect to see a meaningful production increase after six months. When that new production is realized, Transworld is paid a fee based on performance metrics that directly relate to new oil being produced by the waterflood. Simply put no performance, no payment.”
The operator doesn’t have to buy or lease equipment, pay for transportation of materials, build infrastructure or hire any new personnel. “Most importantly, they don’t have to interrupt the waterflood operation; they simply add a small concentration of our Activ8 formulation to the flood injection they’re already doing,” Weber said.
Small Footprint, Big Results: Transworld Technologies revolutionary BioEOR technology increases the economic performance of mature oilfields on secondary waterflood recovery.
Scientific Presentation at the Pan American Mature Fields Congress 2016
Reservoir engineers and operators of mature waterfloods wishing to learn the details of the science behind this process and see how its functionality relates to reservoir characteristics and increased performance are invited to attend DeBruyn’s technical presentation scheduled for Thursday, February 18 at 9:00 A.M. Central Time at the Pan American Mature Fields Congress 2016, commissioned by PEMEX and being held February 17-18 at the World Trade Center in Veracruz, Mexico.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In advance of the conference, download the free Transworld Technologies White Paper, “Technical Background on BioEnhanced Oil Recovery” .
Specific questions may be addressed to Steve DeSalvo, Vice President Business Development for Transworld Technologies, +1 720-630-2905, Golden, Colorado.
