Rk. Nilsen et al., DISTRIBUTION OF THERMOPHILIC MARINE SULFATE REDUCERS IN NORTH-SEA-OILFIELD WATERS AND OIL-RESERVOIRS, Applied and environmental microbiology, 62(5), 1996, pp. 1793-1798
The distribution of thermophilic marine sulfate reducers in produced o
il reservoir waters from the Gullfaks oil field in the Nonwegian secto
r of the North Sea was investigated by using enrichment cultures and g
enus-specific fluorescent antibodies produced against the genera Archa
eoglobus, Desulfotomaculum, and Thermodesulforhabdus. The thermophilic
marine sulfate reducers in this environment could mainly be classifie
d as species belonging to the genera Archaeoglobus and Thermodesulforh
abdus. In addition, some unidentified sulfate reducers were present. C
ulturable thermophilic Desulfotomaculum strains were not detected. Spe
cific strains of thermophilic sulfate reducers inhabited different par
ts of the oil reservoir. No correlation between the duration of seawat
er injection and the numbers of thermophilic sulfate reducers in the p
roduced waters was observed. Neither was there any correlation between
the concentration df hydrogen sulfide and the numbers of thermophilic
sulfate reducers. The results indicate that thermophilic and hyperthe
rmophilic sulfate reducers are indigenous to North Sea oil field reser
voirs and that they belong to a deep subterranean biosphere.