Next-generation technology that helps extract trapped oil from mature oil fields is always going to be of interest, especially when it can be done without the cost of drilling any new wells. When it also involves working at the microbiological level or is connected with carbon capture and sequestration, it is highly topical. Two advances in these areas illustrate the possibilities.

Biotechnology is reaching into all aspects of the oil and gas business, from helping to overcome flow assurance challenges in deepwater pipelines to releasing oil that would otherwise remain trapped in the ground.

Conventional oilfield technology extracts around a third of oil-in-ground, a figure being slowly but consistently improved. Generally it's accepted that improving the global reserves recovery rate by just 1% equates to between 20-30 Bbbl of additional oil.

One Houston-based venture being backed by the Energy Technology Ventures (ETV) financing group (comprised of GE, NRG Energy, and ConocoPhillips) is biotechnology specialist Glori Energy. ETV's aim is to help accelerate the commercialization of Glori's AERO (Activated Environment for Recovery of Oil) System, which could extract up to an additional 45% beyond that obtained from traditional recovery processes.

The system involves introducing a mix of safe nutrients into waterflooded oil fields to stimulate the growth of indigenous microbes, which temporarily modify the fluid pathways to redirect water and improve oil mobility.

The ability to be able to customize its treatments to optimize the microbiology of each oil field is an advance that means operators would be able to micromanage and extend a mature asset's production profile without having to drill any new wells, with all the cost savings and environmental benefits that this entails.

Boosting output from mature assets with no new wells is also one of the aims of a landmark carbon capture and storage project by Shell subsidiary Cansolv Technologies Inc. using its expertize in COcapture technology.

Cansolv got the government go-ahead for construction of an integrated carbon and sulphur capture system at Boundary Dam power station in Saskatchewan, Canada. The approval allows one of the world's first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facilities, lead by the Saskatchewan Power Corp.

The project not only fully integrates and rebuilds an aging lignite coal-fired unit but will see the captured COused for enhanced oil recovery on nearby fields by 2014.

Steve Bryce, president of Cansolv, estimates it will capture about one million tonnes of COevery year. Cansolv's patented technology uses regenerable amines to capture COand SO.

Both these innovative examples provide clean, environmentally friendly solutions and result in enhanced production levels, with no wells having to be drilled. If these are indicative of other next-generation technologies in the pipeline, the industry is in good hands.

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