Abstract
To systematically evaluate the ecological changes of an active offshore petroleum production system, the variation of microbial communities at several sites (virgin field, wellhead, storage tank) of an oil production facility in east China was investigated by sequencing the V3 to V4 regions of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) of microorganisms. In general, a decrease of microbial community richness and diversity in petroleum mining was observed, as measured by operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers, α (Chao1 and Shannon indices), and β (principal coordinate analysis) diversity. Microbial community structure was strongly affected by environmental factors at the phylum and genus levels. At the phylum level, virgin field and wellhead were dominated by Proteobacteria, while the storage tank had higher presence of Firmicutes (29.3–66.9%). Specifically, the wellhead displayed a lower presentence of Proteobacteria (48.6–53.4.0%) and a higher presence of Firmicutes (24.4–29.6%) than the virgin field. At the genus level, the predominant genera were Ochrobactrum and Acinetobacter in the virgin field, Lactococcus and Pseudomonas in the wellhead, and Prauseria and Bacillus in the storage tank. Our study revealed that the microbial community structure was strongly affected by the surrounding environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen content, salinity, and pH, which could be altered because of the oil production. It was observed that the various microbiomes produced surfactants, transforming the biohazard and degrading hydro-carbon. Altering the microbiome growth condition by appropriate human intervention and taking advantage of natural microbial resources can further enhance oil recovery technology.
Highlights
Microorganisms play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle of the earth
To gain the knowledge of microbial community alteration before and after oil production, in this study we investigated the microbial communities in three sites: virgin field (VF), crude oil collected from the wellhead (WH), and sludge collected from oil storage tanks (ST)
Sample VF1 was discarded since 96.5% of the bacteria identified belonged to the Acinetobacter genus, which is a typical contamination phenomenon
Summary
Microorganisms play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle of the earth. The microbial community has revealed the interactions between earth and human activities, such as the forming and mining of petroleum fields [1]. Microbial communities could be influenced by factors such as temperature, oxygen content, salinity, and pH, which could be greatly altered during oil production. The interactions of these factors may cause changes in the overall abundance of bacteria and fungi. The study of microbial distribution and diversity is important and beneficial to the oil industry. To gain the knowledge of microbial community alteration before and after oil production, in this study we investigated the microbial communities in three sites: virgin field (VF), crude oil (oil-water mixture) collected from the wellhead (WH), and sludge collected from oil storage tanks (ST). By analyzing the composition and distribution of the microbiome from different oil producing procedures, we hope the findings can help to develop improved approaches for increasing oil recovery and quality, as well as reducing oil pollution
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