Microbial communities of a complex high-temperature offshore petroleum reservoir

In this paper, the microbial communities of a complex high-temperature (appr. 85 degrees C) 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]