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ONGC to use microbes to locate oil fields
Hyderabad, Dec 08: Drilling for oil is a risky business because after spending millions of rupees the borewell may turn out to be dry.
Hyderabad, Dec 08: Drilling for oil is a risky business because after spending millions of rupees the borewell may turn out to be dry.
To reduce the risk, scientists at the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) say they are using a special army of microbes as a guide to identify the right places for drilling.
Called microbial prospecting, the method rests on a 50-year-old finding that an oil reservoir lets out tiny amounts of methane, propane, butane and other light hydrocarbon gases which seep upward to the ground surface. Some specialised soil microbes feed on these gases and grow.
Presence of any one of these gas-gulping bacteria is an indication of oil directly below, scientists told a conference on geo-chemical prospecting that concluded here yesterday.
Microbial prospecting by itself is not enough to identify an oil basin. "But when used in conjuction with conventional seismic and geophysical methods, it increases the predictive accuracy from 35 per cent to over 80 per cent," A K Jain of ONGC Institute for Petroleum Exploration in Baroda told the conference.
Called microbial prospecting, the method rests on a 50-year-old finding that an oil reservoir lets out tiny amounts of methane, propane, butane and other light hydrocarbon gases which seep upward to the ground surface. Some specialised soil microbes feed on these gases and grow.
Presence of any one of these gas-gulping bacteria is an indication of oil directly below, scientists told a conference on geo-chemical prospecting that concluded here yesterday.
Microbial prospecting by itself is not enough to identify an oil basin. "But when used in conjuction with conventional seismic and geophysical methods, it increases the predictive accuracy from 35 per cent to over 80 per cent," A K Jain of ONGC Institute for Petroleum Exploration in Baroda told the conference.
Bureau Report