Jennifer Pallanich, senior technology editor, Hart Energy: Downhole tiny leaks [have] long been a problem for the oil industry. One company is sending bacteria down to do the job. Find out more in this Tech Trends with me, Jennifer Pallanich.

Hayden Binde, marketing and sales support manager, BioSqueeze Inc.: So we use a natural soil bacteria that we send downhole, and it forms crystalline calcium carbonate, essentially limestone. So this readily adheres to anything downhole. You think of biofilms like plaque on your teeth. That provides the nucleation site for us to grow crystalline calcium carbonate. It then grows layer by layer until the leak is completely sealed off. What we create is seven times stronger than Class G cement, and limestone is a natural gas tight cap rock that should last longer than anything else that's downhole.

JP: So I understand you originally developed this with grant money to seal leaks in carbon sequestration. Can you tell me more about how it's being used now?

HB: Now we use it on sustained casing pressure, gas migration, surface casing vent flow, depending on where you're at. Typically end of life wells before plug and abandonment, but we can seal it anytime you have a problems.

JP: Okay. And how do you know that those tiny little bacteria go where they're supposed to go?

HB: So we take a very targeted approach with where we deliver the product. We do pre-job analysis to identify the best place to intersect the leakage pathways. Once we intersect it, we seal up anything that we can access.

JP: And that's your Tech Trends with me, Jennifer Pallanich. To learn more, check out hartenergy.com/ep.

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