Chapter 13 - Biological souring and mitigation strategies in oil reservoirs

Abstract

Biological souring is one of the major problems facing the oil and gas sector as a result of biogenic sulfide generation in the reservoirs. Sulfidogenic microorganism and particularly sulfate-reducing bacteria are the main generator of the biogenic sulfide. In consequence, souring has a plethora of economic and environmental problems. It has a negative impact on the petroleum industry, where the generated sulfide lowers air quality and causes adverse health problems due to its toxicity and carcinogenicity. Furthermore, it affects the whole industry by reducing the product quality and enhancing metal corrosion. Therefore, different physical, chemical, and biological mitigation strategies have been developed for biological souring inhibition. In this chapter, the biological souring definition, mechanism, factors affecting the souring process, and the mitigation strategies and the methods used to assay the souring will be discussed.