A laboratory investigation of the mobilization and displacement of
residual oil in a sandpack using biosurfactant slug was conducted. The
biosurfactant employed was extracted from a culture of Pseudomonas sp.
grown on kerosinesupplemented mineral salts medium. Characterization of
the biosurfactant extract revealed a mixture of glycolipid and
phospholipid in a ratio of 3.35:1. The irreducible water saturation
(Swi ) and initial residual oil saturation (Sor ) of the sandpack were
0.280 ± 0.003 and 0.373 ± 0.006, respectively. Core flooding
experiment showed that an optimum oil recovery of 52.19% of the inplace
residual oil was achieved at biosurfactant incubation time (BIT) of 120
h. These results suggest that biosurfactant produced by Pseudomonas
species is a potential "candidate" for microbially enhanced oil
recovery
