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Most of the world’s oil resources are heavy viscous hydrocarbons that are difficult and costly to produce. The recovery of this resource from subsurface reservoirs is well below 17 per cent and carries with it significant environmental and economic costs. As a general rule, the heavier or denser the crude oil, the lower its economic value and the more difficult it is to recover.
Generally, heavier oil is less valuable; however, the high demand for oil and gas combined with declining production from conventional sources is shifting industry’s interest to exploitation of heavy oil. In fact, heavy oil promises to play a major role in the future of the oil industry. Many countries are now moving to increase their production, revise reserve estimates, test new technologies and invest in infrastructure to ensure their heavy oil resources are not left undeveloped.
Hydrocarbon biodegradation in subsurface petroleum reserves is a crucial factor in the creation of heavy oil. This process is ongoing; over millions of years, it has converted many of the world’s light oil reserves into methane and heavy oil residues. Overall, this process has adversely impacted the majority of the world’s oil by making recovery and refining more costly, especially for highly biodegraded heavy oil and bitumen, which represent well over 50 per cent of recoverable oil resources.
Typically, hydrocarbon biodegradation is viewed as a negative process, but Profero Energy believes that accelerating this natural process will actually increase oil and gas recovery. Through its proprietary technology LEMUR™ (Low Emission Microbial Upgrading and Recovery), Profero Energy is focused on converting and recovering heavy oil assets as natural gas and additional oil that was unrecoverable using other methods.
