The Titan Process® was created by Noel Carroll, Bob Carroll, Bill Carroll, and Alan Sheehy, Ph.D. The process was originally known as Biological Oil Stimulation (BOS) and was later changed to the Titan Process.
Noel Carroll has had approximately 100 patents issued since he was a teenager. His research into the BOS Process had its beginning with research and scientific inquiry into various microbial phenomena not related to the petroleum industry in the early 1970s. In the late 1980s the Carrolls helped finance research on a microbial enhanced oil recovery technology with the Commonwealth Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s largest government funded research organization. Professor Alan Sheehy, Director and Head of Microbiology at the University of Canberra, joined the Carroll team as Research Leader.
Before they embarked on the BOS technology (The Titan Process) the Carroll brothers created 60 patents and developed with Southampton University an oil/water separator called Vortoil in 1980. Within seven years this invention was in use all over the world and was in wide use on North Sea oil platforms. BWN Vortoil Limited (the Carroll's company) had offices in Australia, the United States, the U.K., Saudi Arabia and Singapore. In 1989 Dupont/Conoco bought the Vortoil business for approximately $35 million. Today Vortoil technology is a leading technology for offshore oil/water separators. The oil/water separator technology is not related to MEOR.
After the sale of the Vortoil business, under Noel Carroll’s direction, the brothers embarked on a new direction in the microbial sciences as it relates to oil recovery. As research continued, laboratory tests and scientific experimentation were successful and culminated in the first field test at a small 40 bopd field, the Alton Field, Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia. The test was successful in 1989, sustaining a production increase of 40% over an 18 month period.
In the early 1990s the BOS Technology was applied to the Rankin Field, Harris County, Texas (1990–1992) which showed a 60% increase in production above the baseline. In the mid-1990s the Beatrice Field, North Sea, England (1992-1995) showed a 25% increase in production. The Kuparuk Field in Alaska (1996) showed a one well increase of 100%. In all cases the technology had a very positive effect on oil production.
