New oil in old wells

[mgx + 3]

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kevin Keith. I am a Janitor Supervisor. I am not an oil investor, not an oil expert and probably have incomplete information about oil. I’m not even sure how blogs work or if this is the place to blurt out the idea. But I have an idea that needs to be put in front of oil experts and oil investors for their opinion about research.

   I am not going to waste your time at the beginning of this and just cut to the chase first. The idea is to use the closed oil wells to put and pour fresh algae and or pond scum into empty oil wells to let it decompose. Fresh algae will die in such a sunless place but not without first trying to eat and digest the other organic substance present which is, I’m supposing is decomposed algae. I am here making an uneducated guess as to what crude oil is. The process has to be a simple one with a complex result.

   Here is my understanding of how things work. Or an overview of how I believe things work. The Earth rotates; when rotating it cracks; water flows in the cracks taking algae with it. Water steams off and becomes rivers. Algae collects and becomes dead and decomposing. That is, what I believe is, crude oil. As organics are digested by us, we produce methane. Natural gas is a complex methane perhaps through this digestion process underground. All of this can be mimicked or reproduced in a lab. If it proves accurate and wells are then used, a useful product, either natural gas or a type of crude might be available after only six to eight years.

   Sorry to have crowded into your very educated world. I’ll back out of your blog now and let you mull this over and find out if this has merit.

Thank you for listening. Keep crude oil hope alive.

[markslawson + 1,058]

5 hours ago, mgx said:

All of this can be mimicked or reproduced in a lab. If it proves accurate and wells are then used, a useful product, either natural gas or a type of crude might be available after only six to eight years.

Mgx - I'm not quite sure how you process works so I have no comment to make on it, but there are plenty of ways to make oil if required. Coal can be converted to oil and there is a whole biofuel industry where plants are converted to oil. The problem is that there is no shortage of oil at the moment, so there is no need for unconventional, usually more costly solutions. About a decade ago, the US was a huge oil importer. Now its a net exporter thanks to the fracking revolution, and that's only one part of teh oil industry story in recent years.. your algae idea is of interest but few will bother with it at the moment..  

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

5 hours ago, mgx said:

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kevin Keith. I am a Janitor Supervisor. I am not an oil investor, not an oil expert and probably have incomplete information about oil. I’m not even sure how blogs work or if this is the place to blurt out the idea. But I have an idea that needs to be put in front of oil experts and oil investors for their opinion about research.

   I am not going to waste your time at the beginning of this and just cut to the chase first. The idea is to use the closed oil wells to put and pour fresh algae and or pond scum into empty oil wells to let it decompose. Fresh algae will die in such a sunless place but not without first trying to eat and digest the other organic substance present which is, I’m supposing is decomposed algae. I am here making an uneducated guess as to what crude oil is. The process has to be a simple one with a complex result.

   Here is my understanding of how things work. Or an overview of how I believe things work. The Earth rotates; when rotating it cracks; water flows in the cracks taking algae with it. Water steams off and becomes rivers. Algae collects and becomes dead and decomposing. That is, what I believe is, crude oil. As organics are digested by us, we produce methane. Natural gas is a complex methane perhaps through this digestion process underground. All of this can be mimicked or reproduced in a lab. If it proves accurate and wells are then used, a useful product, either natural gas or a type of crude might be available after only six to eight years.

   Sorry to have crowded into your very educated world. I’ll back out of your blog now and let you mull this over and find out if this has merit.

Thank you for listening. Keep crude oil hope alive.

Hi Kevin, 

Some of what you say has merit. I know a scientist who did something similar, not algae but sewage sludge. The anaerobic bacteria in the sludge don't care about the sun or oxygen so they're fine downhole. The "product" was methane. Didn't work that great, but I'm working with that same scientist now on something similar but different. 

There's lots of resources about how oil is formed I recommend you look into that. You lost me completely with the earth rotation part. Forget cracks, think massive earthquakes and tsunamis burying entire river mouths like the Mississippi into the gulf. That aggregated biotic material (yes including algae) buried for tens of millions of years can indeed turn into oil and natural gas. 

[Meredith Poor + 895]

Wikipedia has a long entry on the various geological sources of petroleum. One grade of petroleum is called 'lacustrine', which forms from dead algae accumulating at the bottom of stagnant water bodies. Iron hydroxide washed in from streams then acts as a 'reducing agent', removing the oxygen from sugar (starch, cellulose) complexes. One of the waste products from aluminum smelting is iron hydroxide, it is also used in waste water treatment plants.

Just injecting CO2 into shut oil wells might well result in hydrocarbon production. The factors that would make this happen are a supply of water and heat. (n)CO2 + (n)H2O -> C(n)H(n2)... + (m)Ox, where the carbon compounds might be something like heptane (C7H16) and oxidized minerals might be MgO or CaO. In general, heat above about 500 degrees F breaks up carbon containing compounds (this is where the book named 'Fahrenheit 451' comes from). Any catalytic material would lower this temperature - nickel, titanium dioxide (TiO2), and Iron (Fe) all act as catalysts.

[-trance + 114]

13 hours ago, Meredith Poor said:

 

Just injecting CO2 into shut oil wells might well result in hydrocarbon production.

Well CO2 injection for enhanced recovery is a known processes, it is not making more oil just pushing it up to the surface while sequestering carbon.

[-trance + 114]

Just use a surface anaerobic digestion unit for methane if you have an abundant source of bio-solids; you can not "make" crude oil within your lifespan.

[mgx + 3]

There have been great responses to my question here. You are all exactly the kind of people I wanted to here this idea. What I have learned from you is that I have yet a lot to learn. Thank you. (I'm smiling.)

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by mgx

[Meredith Poor + 895]

7 hours ago, -trance said:

Well CO2 injection for enhanced recovery is a known processes, it is not making more oil just pushing it up to the surface while sequestering carbon.

At least as far as anyone knows.

[Meredith Poor + 895]

7 hours ago, -trance said:

Just use a surface anaerobic digestion unit for methane if you have an abundant source of bio-solids; you can not "make" crude oil within your lifespan.

There are companies that do this all the time. A few more generate 'refined products' directly from CO2 and hydrogen - diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

12 hours ago, mgx said:

There have been great responses to my question here. You are all exactly the kind of people I wanted to here this idea. What I have learned from you is that I have yet a lot to learn. Thank you. (I'm smiling.)

 

Please consider using your ideas in the biomethane area. It can be made quickly and is more marketable to greenies than regular natural gas. 

Here is my topic on it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N-TLMeHsKYBCirxS0vbqMGHpU2SmyLuCc7bqp8eYXVM/edit

We do have a secton on the natural gas industry as a whole. 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by ronwagn