Petroleum Chemistry, Vol.54, No.6, 405-411, 2014
A study of relations between physicochemical properties of crude oils and microbiological characteristics of reservoir microflora
The dependence of the population and activity of reservoir microflora upon the chemical composition and viscosity of crude oils has been investigated, since it allows the problem of improvement in the technologies and enhancement of oil recovery as applied to production of difficult types of oils with anomalous properties (viscous, heavy, waxy, high-resin) to be solved. The effect of the chemical composition of the oil on the number, distribution, and activity of reservoir microflora has been studied using data on the microbiological properties of reservoir water of 16 different fields in oil and gas basins of Russia, Mongolia, China, and Vietnam. Information on the physicochemical properties of crude oils of these fields has been obtained from the database created at the Institute of Petroleum Chemistry, Siberian Branch on the physicochemical properties of oils throughout the world. It has been found that formation water in viscous oil reservoirs is characterized by a large population of heterotrophic and sulfate-reducing bacteria and the water of oil fields with a high paraffin content, by population of denitrifying bacteria.
Keywords:tight oil;formation water;reservoir microflora;oil recovery;heterotrophic bacteria;sulfate-reducing bacteria