Title: Microbial communities of a complex high-temperature offshore petroleum reservoir

Authors: Odd Gunnar Brakstad, Hans Kristian Kotlar, Sidsel Markussen

Addresses: SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Department of Marine Environmental Technology, Trondheim, Norway. ' Statoil Research Centre, Trondheim, Norway. ' SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Department of Biotechnology Trondheim, Norway

Abstract: In this paper, the microbial communities of a complex high-temperature (appr. 85°) offshore petroleum reservoir are described as part of improving the understanding of the biogeochemical processes in the reservoir. Based on molecular biology studies, the results revealed that the microbial communities differed between samples from producing wells and the oil/water production facility of the reservoir, although a few types of thermophilic microbes appeared in both environments. The microbial communities of the different producing wells could be separated into three groups, and the target bacteria related to the genera Halomonas, Arcobacter or Pseudomonas seemed to be associated with these groups. Thus, different microbial communities were detected in this reservoir, and further investigations will clarify if specific target microbes may be used for the identification of different oil qualities or other reservoir characteristics. [Received: November 4, 2007; Accepted: January 10, 2008]

Keywords: microbial communities; petroleum reservoirs; PCR; DGGE; sequence analysis; formation water; fines; precipitates; offshore reservoirs; molecular biology; high-temperature reservoirs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2008.019843

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2008 Vol.1 No.3, pp.211 - 228

Published online: 09 Aug 2008 *

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