微生物攻法(MEOR)研究の現状と展望 : 実用技術化に向けての取り組み

Stable supply of petroleum in coming years using Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques is an issue of prime importance, though most of EOR techniques which can effectively act to recover compulsively the residual crude oil are still in testing stage. Microbial EOR (MEOR) is generally understood to be at the similar stage.Regarding MEOR, there are two points of issue. One is how to transplant target microbe (s) into the formation where needed and the other is how to activate their microbial metabolic function where to execute the role. These are indispensable to establish MEOR technology as a practical technology. Hence, promotion of those techniques based on the scientific approach becomes increasingly important.Through TRC-Jilin Oil Corp. joint-research reviewed in this paper, importance of this concept was confirmed and it was also shown that these two techniques described above are controllable and available at the field level. In particular, the microbial profile modification is not only a direct method to enhance the oil recovery, but also an effective pretreatment technique for transplanting the microbe (s) to a target reservoir region.It is not an exaggeration to say that a new era of MEOR technology has begun with the above-described field research in China. And, it is indicated that strategies of reservoir development based on the overall plan considering a combination of applicable IOR/EOR techniques through the whole production period become more important than ever before.