[M.D. Holloway]

Oil-eating bacteria could help extract more methane from oil reserves - Nature
13th December 2007

An article in Nature magazine describes how researchers at the University of Calgary have worked out how natural bacteria deep within the Earth break down crude oil and produce methane. This knowledge, if small-scale laboratory techniques of accelerating the natural process can be replicated under ground, could help with projects to encourage these bacteria to convert more oil, faster. It could even point towards a way to produce microbial-derived hydrogen.

Microbes living on the crude oil in petroleum reservoirs usually start by biodegrading the simpler oil fractions, leaving behind a sticky residue called 'heavy oil'. They will then start breaking down this heavier substance too, all the while producing methane as a product. There are around six trillion barrels of heavy oil across the globe, lurking beneath the Earth’s surface, but using steam to melt and and extract it uses much energy and usually recovers no more than 17% of the oil.

This looks interesting - providing this on a large scale to grab methane would be a challenge. I can see a real need for this in the tar sands up at Fort MacMoney.