Colombia's Earliest GreenZyme Studies: UIS and Campo Colorado (2010–2012)
Updated: Aug 22
What Biological Enzymes Do in a Reservoir
Before getting into the Colombian studies, it helps to know what a biological enzyme actually does inside a reservoir. GreenZyme® and enzymes like it are detergent-class biocatalysts — not surfactants, solvents, or pressure-support agents, even though they're sometimes lumped in with those categories.
The 2010 Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) methodology paper below put it plainly: the enzyme's effect comes from changing how rock and fluid interact, not from displacing oil the way a waterflood or gas injection does.
In practice that means two things: altering wettability so oil releases more easily from rock surfaces, and lowering the interfacial tension between oil and water so trapped droplets can move. Because the enzyme acts as a catalyst rather than being consumed in the reaction, its effect tends to build over time rather than show up as a single step-change in production.
What This Post Covers
This post covers Colombia's first two documented steps into GreenZyme research: a 2010 methodology study out of the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), and a 2012 UIS lab evaluation run specifically on Campo Colorado crude.
Both are academic, laboratory-only work.
2010 — Academic Verification and Methodological Definition, UIS
The first recorded publication is a 2010 methodology paper out of UIS, one of Colombia's leading petroleum research institutions: Otero, Z. & Salamanca, M., “Metodología para la selección de enzimas biológicas en procesos de estimulación de pozos,” directed by Oscar Vanegas Angarita.
The focus was methodological. The researchers built a structured framework for evaluating enzyme action in petroleum systems, and the framework itself set boundaries that would govern everything that came after:
Laboratory testing had to run under reservoir-representative pressure, temperature, and salinity.
Enzymatic effects had to be separated from anything a surfactant or solvent could produce.
A single well's production response wasn't accepted as validation on its own.
The working assumption was that any real effect would be incremental and cumulative, not a step-change.
The study concluded that the enzyme acts primarily by modifying rock-fluid interactions — not by providing pressure support or displacement efficiency — which is a fundamentally different, more conservative claim than most EOR chemicals make.
2012 — Putting the Methodology to Work: Campo Colorado
Two years later, that methodology was put to work on a specific reservoir: Campo Colorado, one of UIS's own long-standing petroleum teaching fields.
Their thesis, “Evaluación experimental de enzimas biológicas en sistemas roca-fluido colombianos,” evaluated GreenZyme in the lab against fluid and rock properties matched to well Colorado 25, using Berea sandstone cores as a reservoir analogue.
The work started with straightforward product characterization, before moving to the tests that actually mattered: wettability restoration at reservoir conditions (1,300 psi / 90°C) and displacement testing.
Density: 1.0263 g/mL
pH: 4.2 (concentrate)
Conductivity: 10.45 mS/cm
Fully water-soluble
The results were consistent with what the 2010 methodology paper predicted:
API gravity increased
Effective viscosity decreased
No incompatibility with the formation fluids it was tested against
Optimal concentration came out at 3–6%, and longer agitation time improved efficiency — practical, unglamorous variables, not marketing claims.
The thesis closed with operational recommendations rather than field-readiness claims:
Keep application temperature under 212°F
Match brine chemistry before any field use — field-produced water is best.
It's a lab thesis defining the conditions under which the product behaves predictably, on the same UIS campus, two years after the first methodology paper.
Why These Two Studies Matter
Together, these two UIS studies did two different jobs. The 2010 paper established that the mechanism holds up under controlled, reservoir-representative lab conditions in general.
The 2012 thesis tested that mechanism against a specific, named Colombian field's rock and fluid properties, and came back with usable operating parameters rather than a promotional result.
Sources & Credits
Otero, Z., & Salamanca, M. (2010). Metodología para la selección de enzimas biológicas en procesos de estimulación de pozos. Universidad Industrial de Santander. Director: Oscar Vanegas Angarita.
Porras Ojeda, M. A., & Ramírez Díaz, J. P. (2012). Evaluación experimental de enzimas biológicas en sistemas roca-fluido colombianos. Universidad Industrial de Santander. Director: Oscar Vanegas Angarita.
