GE, ConocoPhillips & NRG Venture Invests in Oil Recovery Tech (GE, NRG, COP)

Energy Technology Ventures is not exactly a household name, but its venture partners of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) are household names.  What is interesting about the venture is that it is focused on the development of next-generation energy technologies.  This morning comes news that the joint venture has invested in Houston-based company called Glori Energy.

Glori is not an alternative energy investment.  The company’s technology helps extract trapped oil from mature oil fields.  The aim is to significantly boosting well production, and of course this could also be used to extract oil from other fields whose yields have been previously deemed too low to be worth reinvesting in.

Specifically, Glori revives oil fields with depleting production volumes and it can reclaim oil at a fraction of the cost of drilling new wells.  The release this morning shows that conventional oilfield technology typically extracts only about one-third of all discovered oil and much of the oil discovered remains underground. Glori Energy’s AERO System is said to extract an additional 30% to 45% of the oil beyond what is drilled from traditional processes.

The company noted, “Glori Energy’s methodology introduces a customized mix of safe nutrients into waterflooded oil fields to stimulate the growth of indigenous microbes which temporarily modify the fluid pathways to redirect water and improve oil mobility.”  It also said the the company customizes its treatments to optimize the microbiology of each oil field.

JON C. OGG