页岩革命的储水井曾经像间歇泉一样喷涌而出，现在正开始干涸。

Shale Ingenuity 首席执行官罗伯特·唐尼 (Robert Downey) 告诉 Hart Energy：“自（页岩革命）以来，已有约 10 万口页岩水平井钻探并投入生产，使我们的产量每天增加约 600 万桶。” 。“但如今，大约三分之一的油井日产量不足 10 桶，因为产量猛增，然后产量急剧下降。2015 年之前钻探的几乎所有油井都[几乎]枯竭。”

根据德克萨斯州经济地质局的一项研究，估计典型石油采收率约为地质储量的 6%，或者正如唐尼所解释的那样，“测探这口水平井，花费 700 万美元，生产 10 年。” 当油井几乎不再生产任何东西时，您已回收了高达 6% 的石油。”

威利斯顿盆地、二叠纪盆地以及鹰福特页岩总共蕴藏着 3.1 万亿桶石油。全面开发时采收率为 6%，剩余石油储量为 2.9 万亿桶，是美国探明储量的 77 倍。当今石油和天然气公司面临的挑战是如何保留剩余 94% 的石油。

SuperEOR 是 Shale Ingenuity 针对页岩井干涸问题提供的解决方案。SuperEOR 过程类似于吞吐注入，因为它涉及将溶剂注入储层，溶剂膨胀成气体并将石油从岩石中驱出。然而，溶剂具有特定的成分，使得该工艺比其他 EOR 方法更具可持续性。这是因为溶剂可以从岩石中回收并重复使用多次。

“这与仅将天然气或 CO ₂ [注入井中] 有很大不同，因为使用天然气或 CO ₂时，您必须将底部压力达到 3,000 [psi] 或 4,000 psi 才能获得这些气体进入溶液。我们的溶剂在 700 psi 的压力下进入溶液，”唐尼说。“注射后，它会迫使所有油脂通过毛孔。它膨胀成气体，并沿井眼向上流动，然后将其回收到地面，将其冷凝回液态，存储在适当的位置，然后重新注入。”

Downey 表示，当使用 SuperEOR 进行岩心测试时，超过 90% 的石油能够从岩心中回收。回收过程也快速高效，因为只需 5 天到 10 天的溶剂注入即可导致 10 到 20 天的回流。

“如果你注射气体，你需要注射一到两个月，然后回流三到四个月，但我们的周期很快，恢复也更快。因此，我们可以多获取 300% 至 500% 的石油，而不是多获取 10% 至 40% 的石油，”唐尼说。

另一种可持续的 EOR 解决方案实际上是 OOR，即有机石油采收解决方案。

总部位于加利福尼亚州的 Titan Oil Recovery 采用专门的 EOR 工艺，利用数百万年来适应环境的本土微生物，从成熟油藏中提取石油。

Titan 通过与特定种类的微生物合作来激活油藏的生物学和生态学，这些微生物可以使石油发生物理变形，将其转化为微小的油滴。这使得油藏中被困的石油能够逸出并被回收。该技术具有低碳足迹，还可以减少油田硫化氢的产生。

“我们在实验室中进行分析，找出我们可以使用的[油藏]中的物种，”泰坦石油回收公司首席执行官肯尼思·格比诺告诉哈特能源公司。“有些物种吃我们的食物，我们可以改变它们的生活习惯。他们现在不想靠近水和油藏中的岩石、砂岩或碳酸盐岩，而是想靠近石油。”

Gerbino 所指的“优质食品”是一种有机和可生物降解营养素的复杂配方，专为各个领域量身定制。食物会导致目标微生物繁殖，并诱导目标微生物变得亲油（对油有亲和力）并附着在油滴上。

微生物也会变得疏水（不想靠近水）；杰比诺说，它们离开了原来所在的水和岩石界面并包围了石油。然后，它们使油发生物理变形，产生微小的油滴。

“他们不‘吃’石油，”格尔比诺说。“他们只是包围它，然后将其分解。” 现在，这是第一次，这些微小的油滴出现在储层中，它们现在可以从那里的狭小空间中逸出。”

Titan 工艺可在陆上和海上使用，并且能够提供高投资回报，因为初始投资几乎为零。加拿大 Husky Energy 的一份经过同行评审的 SPE 论文发现，回收过程的成本为每增量桶 6 美元。中东和北海项目的最新成果为客户带来了超过 1,000% 的投资回报率。

“我们的技术真正重要的是零资本支出”，我们不会投入和安装设备或建造东西。“我们有潜力比市场上任何其他技术更快地推向市场。”泰坦石油回收技术副总裁迈克·卡罗尔 (Mike Carroll) 说道。“我们在美国、加拿大、英国、荷兰、迪拜和新加坡设立了混合工厂。因此，我们已经可以从我们的品牌为整个世界提供服务。”

该公司表示，Titan Oil Recovery已在五大洲63个油田进行了350口井应用，其中275口注入井应用，平均产量增长超过90%。该公司表示，SuperEOR工艺已在巴肯页岩和尤蒂卡页岩以及其他受NDA保护的项目中使用，并且比传统的EOR方法多回收了至少20%的石油。该行业在接受这些成本较低的 EOR 方法方面进展缓慢，倾向于更多地依赖传统的钻井和完井方法。

“每个人都做同样的事情。你钻探，你压裂，你生产，你钻探，你压裂，你生产。这几乎就是全部焦点。“我们的行业已经远离了提高石油采收率。“EOR 仅占全球总产量的 1.5% 左右，”唐尼说。“作为一个钻探这些页岩井并且不需要进行 EOR 的行业，这是一种变得肥胖、愚蠢和快乐的感觉。” 但随着我们开始钻探我们的面积，并且我们的油井变得相当成熟和枯竭，我们将不得不开始考虑 EOR。”

目前，Shale Ingenuity 致力于为客户安装和运营项目，或有偿许可其 SuperEOR 专利。Titan Oil Recovery 已经与四家顶级石油和天然气公司合作，并与 Hunting Plc 建立了合作伙伴关系，目前正在寻找一家服务公司来收购这些公司的股份。

尽管该行业在采用这些新的 EOR 方法方面进展缓慢，但两位首席执行官都认为石油和天然气行业的分水岭即将到来。

The reservoir wells of the shale revolution, once gushing like geysers, are beginning to run dry.

“Since [the shale revolution], there’s been about 100,000 horizontal shale wells drilled and put in production, [increasing] our production by about 6 million barrels a day,” Robert Downey, CEO of Shale Ingenuity, told Hart Energy. “But today, about a third of those wells are now producing less than 10 barrels a day because they come on like gangbusters and then they have a really steep decline. Pretty much all the wells drilled prior to 2015 are [almost] depleted.”

According to a Texas Bureau of Economic Geology study, the estimated typical oil recovery is about 6% of the oil in place, or as Downey explains, “you drill this horizontal well, spend $7 million on it and produce for 10 years. And by the time the well is pretty much producing nothing, you’ve recovered a whopping 6% of the oil.”

The Williston and Permian basins and the Eagle Ford Shale hold a combined 3.1 trillion barrels of oil. A 6% recovery at full development leaves 2.9 trillion barrels of oil in place, which is 77 times the proved reserves of the U.S. Getting that remaining 94% of oil is the challenge for oil and gas companies today.

SuperEOR is Shale Ingenuity’s solution to the shale wells running dry. The SuperEOR process is similar to huff and puff injection, as it involves injecting a solvent into the reservoir, which expands into a gas and drives the oil out of the rock. However, the solvent has a specific composition, making this process more sustainable than other EOR methods. That’s because the solvent is able to be recovered from the rock and reused multiple times.

“It’s much different than if you just injected natural gas or CO₂ [into the well], because with natural gas or CO₂, you have to get the bottom of pressure up to 3,000 [psi] or 4,000 psi to get those gases to go into solution. Our solvent goes into solution at 700 psi,” Downey said. “Once you inject it, it forces all this oil through the pores. It expands to a gas and it flows up the wellbore and you recover it on the surface, condense it back into a liquid state, store it on location and then reinject it.”

When using SuperEOR for a core test, over 90% of the oil was able to be recovered out of the core, said Downey. The recovery process is also quick and efficient, as only five days to 10 days of solvent injection can lead to between 10 and 20 days of flowback.

“If you were injecting gas, you’d be injecting for one month to two months and then flowing back for three or four months, but our cycles are fast and the recovery is much greater. So, instead of getting maybe 10% to 40% more oil, we can get 300% to 500% more oil,” Downey said.

Another sustainable EOR solution is actually an OOR, or organic oil recovery solution.

California-based Titan Oil Recovery uses a specialized EOR process that takes advantage of indigenous microbes that have adapted to the environment over millions of years in order to extract oil from mature reservoirs.

Titan activates the biology and ecology of oil reservoirs by working with specific species of microbes that can physically deform oil, turning them into micro oil droplets. This allows the trapped oil in reservoirs to escape and be recovered. The technology has a low carbon footprint and can also reduce hydrogen sulfide production in oil fields.

“We do an analysis in our lab and find out which species down [in the reservoir] we can work with,” Kenneth Gerbino, CEO of Titan Oil Recovery, told Hart Energy. “There are certain species that eat our food and we can change their living habits. Instead of wanting to be next to the water and the rock in the oil reservoir, the sandstone or the carbonates, they now want to be next to oil.”

The “food” Gerbino refers to is a complex formula of organic and biodegradable nutrients that is tailor-made for every field. The food causes the targeted microbes to multiply and induces the targeted microbes to become oleophilic (affinity for oils) and attach themselves to oil droplets.

The microbes also become hydrophobic (not wanting to be near water); they move away from the water and rock interface where they have always been and surround the oil, Gerbino said. They then physically deform the oil, creating micro oil droplets.

“They don’t ‘eat’ the oil,” Gerbino said. “They just surround it and they break it down. And now, for the first time, you have these micro oil droplets in a reservoir that can now escape from the tight spaces down there.”

The Titan process works both onshore and offshore and is able to provide a high return on investment, because the initial investment is next to nothing. A peer-reviewed SPE paper by Husky Energy in Canada found that the cost of the recovery process was $6 per incremental barrel. Recent results in projects in both the Middle East and North Sea have returned over 1,000% ROI to customers.

“What’s real important with our technology is that there’s zero capex … we’re not putting in and installing equipment or building things. We have the potential to move quicker than any other technology in the market to market,” said Mike Carroll, vice president of technology for Titan Oil Recovery. “We’ve got blending set up in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Holland, Dubai and Singapore. So, we can service the entire world already from our mark.”

Titan Oil Recovery has been in 63 oil fields on five continents with 350 well applications, including 275 injection well applications, and has delivered an average increase in production of over 90%, the company said. The SuperEOR process has been used in the Bakken Shale and the Utica Shale, as well as in other NDA-protected projects, and has recovered at least 20% more oil than traditional methods of EOR, the company said. The industry has been slow to embrace these less expensive EOR methods, tending to rely more on traditional drilling and completion methods.

“Everyone does the same thing. You drill, you frack, you produce, you drill, you frack, you produce. And that’s pretty much the entire focus. … Our industry has kind of gotten away from enhanced oil recovery. … EOR only accounts for about 1.5% of all production worldwide,” Downey said. “We’ve kind of gotten fat, dumb and happy as an industry drilling these shale wells and haven’t needed to do EOR. But as we’re starting to drill out our acreage and our wells are getting pretty mature and depleted, we’re going to have to start thinking about EOR.”

Currently, Shale Ingenuity works to install and operate projects for clients or license out their SuperEOR patent for a cost. Titan Oil Recovery, who has already worked with four of the top companies in oil and gas and has a partnership with Hunting Plc, is looking to find a service company to buy them out.

Despite the industry being slow to adopt these new methods of EOR, both CEOs believe a watershed moment is soon to arrive in the oil and gas industry.