What do Peak Oil and Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery have in common?
The truth is very little except that oil is the common denominator. Both issues are being debated more seriously today in the global oil industry than at any time in the past. Both have to do with oil supply. This article is by C. Paul Davis#
Peak Oil
In 2005 when very few oil people believed in Peak Oil, or more simply stated – few people believed that oil supply could no longer keep up with oil demand, or oil production had reached its maximum level of production, or, if you prefer, more than half of the world’s original oil supply has been produced. At that time, there were energy experts who claimed (and were being heard at high levels) that Peak Oil was really a “myth” and that the problems regarding having adequate oil supply were “above the ground and not below the ground”. I would estimate that less than ten percent of oil people believed in Peak Oil at that time.
Now six years later, I would estimate (based on my personal research, study, and readings) that well over fifty percent (50%) of oil professionals now believe in Peak Oil. The financial crisis of 2008 and the attendant high gasoline prices that followed have brought the Peak Oil debate to the forefront for serous discussion - finally. Also, today there are more countries speaking out on the potential long-term impact that the consequences of Peak Oil will have on their countries and the world. People are finally addressing how best to mitigate the serious impact and consequences that the world is starting to experience as the result of not having enough affordable oil to meet their needs. Countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Sweden and many others have acknowledged Peak Oil (at least in concept) and are finally attempting to put into place programs that will address the consequences of Peak Oil in a serious way by investigating some viable solutions. Time will tell whether others will also be become convinced of the seriousness of Peak Oil and accept it as a significant and imminent challenge. Let’s hope this happens.
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
The debate about using microbes to recover oil has been ongoing for over 70 years as to whether Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is a viable and economical way to recover a portion of the oil that is trapped in global oil fields (in total, estimated to be about 6.2 trillion barrels of oil). Until just recently, many in the industry would have said the following about MEOR – “Old technology that doesn’t work”. The stigma of “snake-oil” has persisted over the years. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery—just as Peak Oil--has largely been in the category of “myth” to many oil veterans.
In reality, there was a good reason for saying this because prior MEOR efforts to recover oil using microbes simply didn’t work well, or if it did, the results (recovering oil) were sporadic, unreliable, and simply a “hit or miss” proposition that created a very negative reputation for MEOR in the oil industry.
For the past 22 years and after almost $30 million of investment, Titan Oil Recovery, a developer of new proprietary organic systems for oil recovery has been quietly refining the technology and based on actual and substantial field treatment results documentation, it is clear that organic oil recovery is real and it does work.
In order to explain what has been accomplished over the past four-years in working with some major oil companies, substantial documentation, for the very first time, presents facts and findings that support that organic oil recovery technology does work and it is being effectively used by some oil companies in the United States and Canada. The data provided proves beyond any reasonable doubt that this unique technology works.
Summary of oil field applications - July 2007 to December 2010
The following summary details field applications since the current technology’s R&D stage during the1990’s. It encompasses 106 applications on 15 oil fields.
100% success rate on water Injection well treatments.
