Strange! Bacteria can also drive crude oil and visit microbial oil recovery center in Shengli Oilfield.
On the one hand, there are microorganisms invisible to the naked eye, and on the other hand, there is oil known as "black gold". The two seem to have nothing to do with each other, but in the eyes of Wang Weidong, a senior expert in oil production engineering in Shengli Oilfield of China Petrochemical Company, microorganisms are out and out "the raiders of oil displacement". The microorganisms here are not ordinary bacteria that are contagious, pathogenic and corrosive, but some bacteria that can displace oil that is difficult to exploit underground, among which "Micrococcus thermophilus Shengli" named after Shengli Oilfield is the most interesting.
A few days ago, the reporter walked into the microbial oil recovery center of Shengli Oilfield of China Petrochemical Company, the first domestic research and development center for petroleum microorganisms integrating scientific research, production and technical services, and found out that the national projects of petroleum microbial technology in the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the Eleventh Five-Year Plan and the Twelfth Five-Year Plan have successively settled here, leading the development direction of petroleum microbial technology in China.
Microbial research at the molecular level.
Schematic diagram of microbial flooding Li Li ‘an Dongping drawing
Visit microbial oil recovery center
"How small are microbes? You may not imagine that if 1500 microorganisms are arranged in a long line end to end, you still can’t see them because they are too thin. But if you arrange microorganisms in a square of 1500 by 1500, you will see that they are as big as a sesame seed. " In the Microscope Laboratory of Microbial Oil Recovery Center, Wang Weidong introduced the morphology and movement of microbial samples under the microscope.
By magnifying the microbial image by 1000 times, the reporter saw that these bacteria were very active like tadpoles, assiduously emulsifying and producing gas from crude oil. It turns out that this is because microorganisms use biosurfactants and biogas metabolized by them to emulsify crude oil, reduce its viscosity and improve its fluidity, so as to drive crude oil that was originally difficult to drive by water flooding.
In the molecular biology laboratory, I saw a bottle of "oil baby" with black liquid in it neatly arranged in a warm "cradle" shaking at a constant speed and sleeping soundly. According to reports, this laboratory is carrying out research on the technology of producing natural gas by degrading crude oil with microorganisms.
What Wang Weidong is most proud of is that the Microbial Oil Recovery Center has established the largest strain bank in China’s petroleum and petrochemical system at present, with 247 strains of preserved strains. Among them, a methanogenic strain was screened in the reservoir of Luo 801 block in Hekou of Shengli Oilfield, which was discovered for the first time at home and abroad. It has been identified as a new family by the International Preservation Center and named as "Micrococcus thermophilus". This discovery is of great significance, indicating that the crude oil in the currently developed reservoir is slowly transforming into natural gas under the action of microorganisms. Microbial oil recovery center has established molecular ecological analysis technology of reservoir microorganisms, including gene chip detection technology, which can accurately analyze the microbial community structure of reservoir, and this technology is in the leading position in the world.
According to reports, as a technical leader, since 1993, Wang Weidong has set up a professional laboratory for petroleum microbiology in Shengli Oilfield for the first time. Through years of persistent scientific research, it has developed into the only petroleum microbiology research center integrating scientific research, production and technical services in China, and has been rated as the key laboratory of China Petrochemical.
The application scope and scale of microbial technology are constantly expanding.
"Microbial oil recovery center is the earliest, largest and most complete microbial oil recovery laboratory established by China Petrochemical." Li Zengqiang, deputy director of the Energy and Environment Office of Shengli Oilfield, told the reporter that since its establishment, the center has undertaken more than 90 scientific research projects, including 5 at the national level and 24 at the provincial and ministerial levels, and achieved 35 scientific and technological achievements, including 1 at the national level and 9 at the provincial and ministerial levels.
It is understood that at present, Shengli Oilfield is in the international advanced and leading ranks in deepening the understanding of microbial flooding mechanism and improving the reservoir adaptability research, especially in the field of microbial gene chip technology, and has systematically established five gene quantitative detection methods for oil-producing functional bacteria, which has realized the rapid and accurate quantification of functional bacteria at the DNA molecular level, greatly improved the accuracy and timeliness of reservoir microbial community analysis, and realized accurate and efficient regulation.
In the specific production process of oil field, microbial technology also shows its talents. Shengli Oilfield gives full play to the efficient role of microbial technology in development and the protective role in green production, effectively increases oil well output, improves crude oil recovery, and effectively treats produced sewage and solid waste, which has a very broad application prospect. According to the data obtained by the reporter from Shengli Oilfield, by the end of 2018, the microbial flooding technology in Shengli Oilfield had been tested in 9 blocks, increasing oil production by 275,000 tons; Microbial single well treated 1805 wells, increased oil by 170,000 tons, reduced hot washing by 15,500 wells, and saved a lot of corresponding workload and cost.
Broad application prospects in the future.
"Oilfield drilling and development will inevitably produce solid waste, which is also a difficult problem faced by all oilfields." Wang Weidong told reporters that Shengli Oilfield actively explored microbial technology for comprehensive treatment of oil, mud and sand, and took the lead in realizing industrial application in China, which can not only effectively eliminate potential environmental safety hazards, but also be expected to become a new economic growth point.
Wang Weidong said that the pretreatment+microbial composite remediation technology has been established in Shengli Oilfield, and the exploration, sampling and property analysis of mud and sand buffer have been completed; Four on-site treatment schemes of oil sludge sand, such as Zhuangxi, Shengcai, Chunliang and Linpan, were compiled, and the industrial application of 6,000 tons of oil sludge sand bioremediation was carried out.
It is understood that in the promotion of tertiary oil recovery technology in the future, Shengli Oilfield will continue to increase the promotion and application of microbial flooding, and plans to promote 3-5 blocks every year, with an annual oil increase of 200,000-300,000 tons in 3-5 years to form economies of scale; Continuously expand the application scope of biochemical water treatment technology, and choose biochemical treatment technology as the first choice for new reconstruction projects under similar economic conditions to realize green development; Continue to intensify scientific and technological research, set up a special topic of microbial oil recovery in the "14 th Five-Year Plan" national major projects, and enhance the supporting promotion of microbial oil recovery. At present, Shengli Oilfield has compiled a five-year plan for microbial flooding, and carried out the potential evaluation of microbial flooding resources in Shengli Oilfield in advance, and obtained 231 microbial flooding potential units, covering 710 million tons of geological reserves. The demonstration project of microbial flooding will be carried out in two blocks, and it is expected that the oil recovery will be improved by more than 7%.
Wang Weidong said frankly that foreign microbial technology has a history of 40 to 50 years, and has formed relatively perfect screening and application standards. Specialized technical service companies, research institutions and university teams have participated in the research extensively, and the basic research is solid, even supported by state funds. In contrast, there are fewer people engaged in the basic research of microbial technology in China, especially in the research of petroleum microbial technology, and their strength is relatively thin. From the perspective of sustainable development and reservoir management, we should not measure a technology simply by improving oil recovery rate and oil recovery rate, but should stand in a higher vision and better combine technology development with the strategic adjustment of the country and China Petrochemical Group Company, so we should make a more complete long-term plan and give necessary support. (An Dongping, Lu Wei, Ren Houyi)
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