Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery: There is evidence that the metabolism of microorganisms in petroleum reservoirs can produce products that can increase the recovery of oil as a tertiary process. Current research in this area is directed towards experimental studies of the growth of microorganisms and the in-situ generation of microbial products that can result in improved sweep efficiency in waterflooding projects.

Reservoir Simulation and Characterization: Efficient exploitation of hydrocarbon reservoirs depends on using the best understanding of the reservoirs' geology and the physical-chemical processes that occur during exploitation. Current research is directed toward improving parametric reservoir description and flow models used during primary and secondary recovery reduction operations. An integral part of this research is developing methods for expressing the quality of the descriptions in terms of the relationships between the results of simulation studies and actual field performance.