NDIC Awards Grant for Bio-Surfactant
Friday, January 29, 2021

Product Bridges Agriculture and Oil

The ND Industrial Commission has awarded a $206,000 grant to Creedence Energy Services of Minot for a research project aimed at producing a biological surfactant to enhance oil production.

Creedence co-founder Kevin Black provided a description of the research project during his testimony in support of HB 1452. Black said the product could increase production by appreciable amounts over the expected decline of producing wells. He said the best thing about the surfactant is that it can be made from raw materials grown in North Dakota.

Click here to listen to Black's comments

The company's grant application to the Oil & Gas Research Council indicates the product, "due to its novel biosurfactant chemistry and incredibly small micelle size, will be able to contact reservoir surfaces previously unreachable. Once in contact with formation surface and production fluids, the biosurfactant will water-wet the formation rock (decreasing oil affinity for adhering to rock), reduce the surface tension of fluids (reducing the force needed to lift the fluids to surface), and reduce the interfacial tension of oil and water."

Black said the product my help reduce the state's production decline while economic conditions are unfavorable to investment in new wells or full-scale re-fracs. He urged legislators to support HB 1452, which would provide funding to similar cutting-edge research.

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