Hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria of natural crude oil seepages, Digboi oilfield, Northeastern region of India

Abstract

The Digboi oilfield located in the State of Assam, in the northeastern region of India, is one of the world’s oldest producing oilfields. Commercial oil production from this oilfield started with the drilling of Discovery Well No 1, in 1889. Natural seepages of hydrocarbons (crude oil) in the field are common and were responsible for its initial discovery. In the present investigation, the cultured hydrocarbon-utilizing bacterial diversity of a natural oil seep in Digboi oilfield was studied to gain a deeper insight into the microbial communities present in the crude oil seeps. The present study utilized relatively simple and traditionally used culture technique of vapor-phase transfer coupled with online open access bacterial identification software to study the microbial diversity of the surface macro-seepage of crude oil in the study area. The cultured hydrocarbon-utilizing bacterial diversity was revealed to be comprising of five dominant species, which belonged to five different genera of bacteria namely Clostridium, Providencia, Chromobacterium, Burkholderia and Pantoea. These results are important as the novel metabolic diversity of these culturable hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria are being utilized for developing a wide array of biotechnological solutions such as bioremediation and biochemically enhanced oil recovery for the upstream Oil and Gas industry.