The Potential Application of Microorganisms for Sustainable Petroleum Recovery from Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technique was tested at low-temperature heavy oil reservoirs (Russia). The used bioaugmentation approach is based on the introduction of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria into the oilfield in combination with injection of oxygen as an ?2?2 solution in order to initiate the first stage of hydrocarbon oxidation and of (NH4)2HPO4 as a source of biogenic elements.