Insights into the effects of anthropogenic activities on oil reservoir microbiome and metabolic potential

Abstract

Microbial communities have long been observed in oil reservoirs, where the subsurface conditions are major drivers shaping their structure and functions. Furthermore, anthropogenic activities such as water flooding during oil production can affect microbial activities and community compositions in oil reservoirs through the injection of recycled produced water, often associated with biocides. However, it is still unclear to what extent the introduced chemicals and microbes influence the metabolic potential of the subsurface microbiome. Here we investigated an onshore oilfield in Germany (Field A) that undergoes secondary oil production along with biocide treatment to prevent souring and microbially induced corrosion (MIC). With the integrated approach of 16 S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing of water-oil samples from 4 production wells and 1 injection well, we found differences in microbial community structure and metabolic functions. In the injection water samples, amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) belonging to families such as Halanaerobiaceae, Ectothiorhodospiraceae, Hydrogenophilaceae, Halobacteroidaceae, Desulfohalobiaceae, and Methanosarcinaceae were dominant, while in the production water samples, ASVs of families such as Thermotogaceae, Nitrospiraceae, Petrotogaceae, Syntrophaceae, Methanobacteriaceae, and Thermoprotei were also dominant. The metagenomic analysis of the injection water sample revealed the presence of C1-metabolism, namely, genes involved in formaldehyde oxidation. Our analysis revealed that the microbial community structure of the production water samples diverged slightly from that of injection water samples. Additionally, a metabolic potential for oxidizing the applied biocide clearly occurred in the injection water samples indicating an adaptation and buildup of degradation capacity or resistance against the added biocide.