Business | Oil & Gas

Oman drilling firm explores use of bacteria to increase oil production

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is exploring the possibility of using naturally occurring bacteria to increase oil production at its wells in the sultanate, the company's managing director John Malcolm said.

  • By Sunil K. Vaidya, Bureau Chief
  • Published: 00:45 April 27, 2008
  • Gulf News

Muscat: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is exploring the possibility of using naturally occurring bacteria to increase oil production at its wells in the sultanate, the company's managing director John Malcolm said.

He said PDO is working with Sultan Qaboos University to develop microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and its use to increase production.

"No technology is off our agenda," Malcolm said at the Society of Petroleum Engineers conference on EOR techniques.

He said the company is also looking seriously at "in situ combustion" and the use of surfactant polymers, the technologies still in their infancy.

"At PDO, we were stressing the need to contain costs while planning for conventional and EOR projects. Our thinking on EOR was still tempered by the fear that the high cost associated with such projects might not be economically feasible over the long term," Malcolm said.

However, in the last two years the company's thinking has changed with oil price shooting up from $60 to $120 per barrel.

He said that PDO is moving towards becoming a global leader in the application of EOR processes.

"We are one of the few oil companies in the world that is executing world-scale projects in each of the three commonly-used EOR technologies: thermal, chemical and miscible gas," he said.

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