Oil and natural gas are produced from wells having porous and permeable subterranean formations. The porosity of the formation permits the formation to store oil and gas, and the permeability of the formation permits the oil or gas fluid to move through the formation. Permeability of the formation is essential to permit oil and gas to flow to a location where it can be pumped from the well. Sometimes the oil or gas is held in a formation having insufficient permeability for economic recovery of the oil and gas. In other cases, during operation of the well, the permeability of the formation drops to the extent that further recovery becomes uneconomical. In such cases, it is necessary to fracture the formation and prop the fracture in an open condition by means of a proppant material or propping agent. Such fracturing is usually accomplished by hydraulic pressure, and the proppant material or propping agent is a particulate material, such as sand, glass beads or ceramic particles, which are carried into the fracture by means of a fluid.
In the course of production, oil and gas wells oftentimes exhibit buildup of barium sulfate scale and/or organic material, such as paraffin deposits, that can reduce well production and ultimately reduce EUR. In methods referred to as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), many types of chemical treatment agents have been injected into wells to prevent the buildup of scale and paraffin deposits. One type of EOR includes the downhole delivery of microorganism derived surfactants to achieve increased production. This type of EOR is known as microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). However, these microorganisms may not survive or thrive under downhole conditions, limiting their ability to provide surfactant material to the formation and borehole region. Also, these microorganisms injected downhole may be lost or returned to the surface once production commences.
Therefore, what is needed is a way to provide resilient microorganisms that can survive and remain downhole in order to provide long term surfactant properties.