Patent ID: 8517092

Claim:
A method for releasing and recovering trapped oil from a subterranean light-crude oil reservoir of an oil well comprising the steps of: (a) identifying a subterranean light-crude oil reservoir; (b) obtaining a microbial community sample from the bottomhole of said reservoir, said sample is collected in the bottomhole of said reservoir and maintained at the bottomhole temperature and the bottomhole pressure while being brought to the surface of said reservoir; (c) transferring said sample obtained from said bottomhole to a reservoir simulator that is an anaerobic chamber, said sample being maintained under bottomhole temperature and pressure conditions that substantially mimic natural conditions of said reservoir; (d) testing said sample by incubating said sample in at least one candidate liquid nutrient substrate medium formulation in said reservoir simulator, said sample being maintained under bottomhole temperature and pressure conditions that substantially mimic natural conditions of said reservoir; (e) determining a targeted treatment regime for said reservoir based on positive growth of said sample in said nutrient substrate medium formulation, said sample being maintained under bottomhole temperature and pressure conditions that substantially mimic natural conditions of said reservoir; (f) injecting said reservoir with a nutrient substrate medium formulation that provided positive growth in step (e) to produce microbial biomass or microbial metabolic byproducts or a mixture thereof and thereby releasing trapped oil in said reservoir; (g) monitoring said reservoir; and (h) extracting said trapped oil from said reservoir.