Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) represents the use of microorganisms to extract the remaining oil from reservoirs. This technique has the potential to be cost-efficient in the extraction of oil remained trapped in capillary pores of the formation rock or in areas not swept by the classical or modern enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, such as combustion, steams, miscible displacement, caustic surfactant-polymers flooding, etc. Thus, MEOR was developed as an alternative method for the secondary and tertiary extraction of oil from reservoirs, since after the petroleum crises in 1973, the EOR methods became less profitable. Starting even from the pioneering stage of MEOR (1950s) studies were run on three broad areas, namely, injection, dispersion, and propagation of microorganisms in petroleum reservoirs; selective degradation of oil components to improve flow characteristics; and metabolites production by microorganisms and their effects.