Oil recovery process employing thickened aqueous driving fluid

Abstract From the Canadian patent

This specification discloses a process for the production of petroleum from a petroleum-containing subterranean reservoir employing an aqueous driving fluid containing, as a thickening agent, a biopolymer. The biopolymer is a heteropolysaccharide synthesized by an alga. A particular biopolymer is one synthesized by the alga Porphyridium aerugineum. The biopolymer may be employed in the aqueous driving fluid as an in-vivo solution or in a reconstituted form. There is also disclosed a process for the growth of and synthesis of, biopolymer by an alga such as Porphyridium aerugineum. In one aspect of this process the culture for, the synthesis of the biopolymer contains dissolved therein sodium …