Assessment of the microbial community and biocide resistance profile in production and injection waters from an Andean oil reservoir in Colombia

• Published in: International biodeterioration & biodegradation Vol. 157; p. 105137
• Main Authors: Bedoya, Katherine, Niño, Jhorman, Acero, Julia, Cabarcas, Felipe, Alzate, Juan F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Barking Elsevier Ltd 01-02-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: 16S rDNA; Annotations; Arcobacter; Bacteria; Bacterial corrosion; Bacteriocins; Biocide resistance; Biocides; Biological activity; Corrosion products; Ectoine; Efflux; Flooding; Gene clusters; Genomes; Glutamine; Glutaraldehyde; Hydrogen sulfide; Illumina; Injection; Metabolism; Metagenomic; Metagenomics; Metataxonomic; Microbial activity; Microorganisms; Oil; Oil field microbiota; Oil recovery; Oil reservoirs; Phylogeny; Proteins; Pseudomonas; Pseudomonas balearica; Pumps; Reservoirs; Secondary oil recovery; Water treatment; Biocide resistance; 16S rDNA; Metataxonomic; Illumina; Metagenomic; Oil field microbiota
• ISSN: 0964-8305; 1879-0208
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ibiod.2020.105137

Water flooding is a widely applied method for secondary oil recovery. However, this practice introduces exogenous microorganisms into the oil reservoirs that can have deleterious consequences for the recovery process, such as hydrogen sulfide production and corrosion. Biocide treatments have been used to control harmful microbial activity. However, they tend to has limited efficacy attributed to the selection of resistant bacterial populations. This work combines Metagenomic and metataxonomic approaches to investigate the phylogenetic and functional profile of the produced and injected water from an oil reservoir located in the Andean region. The results reveal a marked dominance of the phylum Proteobacteria in both samples (nearly 99%). While Arcobacter sp. and Pseudomonas balearica were the dominant microbes in the injected water, Marinobacter sp. and Arcobacter sp. were the dominant bacteria in the produced water. Biocide resistance genes coding for efflux pumps and transporters were enriched in the injected water that is treated with a mixture of glutaraldehyde and THPS. The draft genome of the Pseudomonas balearica of the injection water encodes several proteins related to efflux pumps, while the Arcobacter sp. draft genome showed fewer proteins related to these resistance systems. Genome annotation of gene clusters related to secondary metabolism also showed that the Pseudomonas balearica present gene clusters for Amonabactin, Ectoine, and dipeptide N-acetyl glutaminyl glutamine amide (NAGNN), whereas the Arcobacter sp. possess one gene cluster for Bacteriocin.
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•Proteobacteria dominates Produced and injected waters.•Biocide treatment leads to enrichment of resistance genes in the metagenome, several efflux pumps.•Biocide-treated injection water lose diversity and is dominated by P. balearica and Arcobacter.•Sulfate-reducing bacteria were in a higher proportion in the produced water.