Neural Network and Microorganisms Help Boost Oil Production
Tatneft is implementing a project to create digital models of microorganisms’ activity that can improve oil recovery. The development has received a grant from the Russian Science Foundation under its Bioeconomy program.
Until recently, this seemed incredible, but today the combination of biology and artificial intelligence is opening new horizons for the oil industry: microorganisms are being put to work in oil production. The company’s project aims to increase the oil recovery factor by 5–15%.
The reason is that if microorganisms in an oil-bearing formation are given the right “feed,” they can help produce more oil. Some microbial strains produce chemical compounds that make oil more mobile, such as biological surfactants and acids. Microorganisms can also produce biopolymers, enzymes and gases. As a result, oil becomes easier to extract from the rock, and production can increase significantly.
Today, the challenge is choosing the right strains. To address it, scientists are developing an AI-powered digital platform that uses genetic data to predict which product a particular microorganism will produce. The program will even be able to determine how useful a given strain is for a specific oil field. Computer modeling can save significant time compared with lengthy laboratory testing, allowing scientists to focus their work on the most promising candidates.
An Alliance of Science and Industry
The project, which involves four organizations with different areas of expertise, has been underway for three years. It received 280 million rubles (about $3.3 million) in funding from a Russian Science Foundation grant, a prestigious form of support for an interdisciplinary research consortium.
In this partnership, Tatneft provides access to wells, organizes field trials and helps adapt the solutions to real-world conditions. The Higher School of Petroleum and the Advanced Engineering School of Petroleum coordinate the interdisciplinary work, linking petroleum engineering and biotechnology. LIFT Center performs sequencing, reading the genomes of microorganisms. ITMO University’s Industrial Biotechnology Engineering Center develops the digital platform and AI models and also participates in creating new biological products.
Partnering With Microbes
Notably, Tatneft has been using the injection of microorganisms into formations, together with oxygen and nutrient substrates, since the 1970s. The technology is becoming a serious alternative to chemical methods, making it possible to avoid using large volumes of reagents. Targeted action on microorganisms is more environmentally friendly and less expensive over the long term. The “menu” for the microorganisms is customized to account for numerous factors.
The company is also developing a parallel closed-loop project involving the bioconversion of CO₂, in which carbon dioxide is not simply captured but used as a feedstock.
For all these developments, strain selection was long based on trial and error: scientists would culture microbial populations in the laboratory and experiment by subjecting them to specific conditions. Now biology is becoming predictive. Oil production appears to be moving significantly closer to modern biotechnology, gaining a new and potentially effective tool.
The Macro Potential of the Microbial World
As early as 2019–2021, Gazprom Neft’s Research and Technology Center developed its own bacterial strain that produces xanthan gum, a biopolymer that is an essential component of drilling fluids. The new strain produces two to four times more xanthan than previously known bacteria, while the resulting product costs 10% less than imported alternatives. The strain has been patented and added to the All-Russian Collection of Industrial Microorganisms.
Today, bioremediation of oil-contaminated soils is actively developing across Russia, particularly in the Arctic. Nornickel used the technology after the 2020 oil-product spill: contaminated soil was treated with microorganisms that break down organic pollutants. By 2024, water and soil samples showed that the affected areas had recovered.
The largest and best-known biotechnology project in Russia’s mining industry is bacterial leaching of gold, used by Polyus. Russia’s only industrial-scale bacterial oxidation plant for refractory gold-bearing ores operates at the Olimpiada deposit in the Krasnoyarsk region. Bacteria oxidize sulfides, releasing gold from its sulfide shell.
So biotechnology itself is not new to the extractive industries. What makes the Tatneft and Higher School of Petroleum project innovative is its use of digital modeling to represent biological processes.
