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Impact of an indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery field trial on microbial community structure in a high pour-point oil reservoir

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Based on preliminary investigation of microbial populations in a high pour-point oil reservoir, an indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) field trial was carried out. The purpose of the study is to reveal the impact of the indigenous MEOR process on microbial community structure in the oil reservoir using 16Sr DNA clone library technique. The detailed monitoring results showed significant response of microbial communities during the field trial and large discrepancies of stimulated microorganisms in the laboratory and in the natural oil reservoir. More specifically, after nutrients injection, the original dominant populations of Petrobacter and Alishewanella in the production wells almost disappeared. The expected desirable population of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, determined by enrichment experiments in laboratory, was stimulated successfully in two wells of the five monitored wells. Unexpectedly, another potential population of Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes which were not detected in the enrichment culture in laboratory was stimulated in the other three monitored production wells. In this study, monitoring of microbial community displayed a comprehensive alteration of microbial populations during the field trial to remedy the deficiency of culture-dependent monitoring methods. The results would help to develop and apply more MEOR processes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was sponsored by the 863 Program (No. 2008AA06Z204) of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation (No.50974022 and No. 51074029) in P. R. China. The authors wish to thank the technical personnel in the Liaohe Oil Field (China) for kindly collecting samples and providing geological information of the well group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Marine Reservoir Evolution and Hydrocarbon Accumulation Mechanism, Ministry of Education, China; School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Fan Zhang, Xiao-Tao Zhang & Du-Jie Hou

  2. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434023, China

    Yue-Hui She, Fu-Chang Shu & Zheng-Liang Wang

  3. College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Yue-Hui She & Long-Jiang Yu

  4. Beijing Bioscience Research Center, Beijing, 100085, China

    Hua-Min Li

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  1. Fan Zhang
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  2. Yue-Hui She
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  3. Hua-Min Li
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  4. Xiao-Tao Zhang
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Correspondence to Yue-Hui She or Du-Jie Hou.

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Zhang, F., She, YH., Li, HM. et al. Impact of an indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery field trial on microbial community structure in a high pour-point oil reservoir. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 95, 811–821 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3717-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3717-1

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