Crude-oil biodegradation via methanogenesis in subsurface petroleum reservoirs

D. M. Jones, I. M. Head, N. D. Gray, J. J. Adams, A. K. Rowan, C. M. Aitken, B. Bennett, H. Huang, A. Brown, B. F. J. Bowler, T. Oldenburg, M. Erdmann and S. R. Larter ()
Additional contact information
D. M. Jones: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
I. M. Head: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
N. D. Gray: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
J. J. Adams: Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada
A. K. Rowan: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
C. M. Aitken: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
B. Bennett: Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada
H. Huang: Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada
A. Brown: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
B. F. J. Bowler: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
T. Oldenburg: Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada
M. Erdmann: Norsk Hydro Oil & Energy, R&D Centre, Bergen, PO 7190, N-5020 Bergen, Norway
S. R. Larter: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

Nature, 2008, vol. 451, issue 7175, 176-180

Abstract: 'Difficult' oil could be a gas More than half of the world's oil inventory consists of biodegraded heavy oil and tar sand deposits. Recovery of oil from these sources is complicated and expensive. Recent findings suggest that anaerobic bacteria may cause this hydrocarbon degradation, but the actual degradation pathway occurring in oil reservoirs remains obscure. Using a combination of laboratory oil degradation experiments and analysis of oilfield samples, it is now shown that the dominant process of subsurface biodegradation is methanogenesis, involving anaerobic degradation of oil hydrocarbons to produce methane. This suggests an alternative way of exploiting these 'difficult' oilfields: by accelerating the natural hydrocarbon degradation process, it may be possible to recover energy as methane, rather than conventionally as oil.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06484 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:451:y:2008:i:7175:d:10.1038_nature06484

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature06484

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().