IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v426y2003i6964d10.1038_nature02134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biological activity in the deep subsurface and the origin of heavy oil

Author

Listed:
  • Ian M. Head

    (NRG petroleum group, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

  • D. Martin Jones

    (NRG petroleum group, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

  • Steve R. Larter

    (NRG petroleum group, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

Abstract

At temperatures up to about 80 °C, petroleum in subsurface reservoirs is often biologically degraded, over geological timescales, by microorganisms that destroy hydrocarbons and other components to produce altered, denser 'heavy oils'. This temperature threshold for hydrocarbon biodegradation might represent the maximum temperature boundary for life in the deep nutrient-depleted Earth. Most of the world's oil was biodegraded under anaerobic conditions, with methane, a valuable commodity, often being a major by-product, which suggests alternative approaches to recovering the world's vast heavy oil resource that otherwise will remain largely unproduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian M. Head & D. Martin Jones & Steve R. Larter, 2003. "Biological activity in the deep subsurface and the origin of heavy oil," Nature, Nature, vol. 426(6964), pages 344-352, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:426:y:2003:i:6964:d:10.1038_nature02134
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02134
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature02134?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Haiping & Zhang, Hong & Han, Denglin, 2021. "Ferrocene addition for suppression of hydrogen sulfide formation during thermal recovery of oil sand bitumen," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    2. Tamara Nazina & Diyana Sokolova & Denis Grouzdev & Ekaterina Semenova & Tamara Babich & Salimat Bidzhieva & Dmitriy Serdukov & Dmitriy Volkov & Konstantin Bugaev & Alexey Ershov & Marat Khisametdinov , 2019. "The Potential Application of Microorganisms for Sustainable Petroleum Recovery from Heavy Oil Reservoirs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Yuanyuan Shen & Yu Ji & Chunrong Li & Pingping Luo & Wenke Wang & Yuan Zhang & Daniel Nover, 2018. "Effects of Phytoremediation Treatment on Bacterial Community Structure and Diversity in Different Petroleum-Contaminated Soils," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Carlos Boente & Gonzalo Márquez & Patricia Marín & Emilio Romero & Cristina Rodrigues & Marco Antonio Guzmán, 2020. "Classical Biomarker and Quantitative Extended Diamondoid Analysis Fingerprints for Crude Oils from Deepwater Developments in Block 17, Lower Congo Basin, Angola," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Zhao, Shuai & Pu, Wanfen & Peng, Xiaoqiang & Zhang, Jizhou & Ren, Hao, 2021. "Low-temperature oxidation of heavy crude oil characterized by TG, DSC, GC-MS, and negative ion ESI FT-ICR MS," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    6. Ma, Lei & Zhou, Lei & Mbadinga, Serge Maurice & Gu, Ji-Dong & Mu, Bo-Zhong, 2018. "Accelerated CO2 reduction to methane for energy by zero valent iron in oil reservoir production waters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 663-671.
    7. Marcos Escobar & Gonzalo Márquez & Blanca Guerrero & Patricia Marín & Carlos Boente & Antonio Bernardo-Sánchez & Emilio Romero & Albert Permanyer, 2020. "Origin and Biodegradation of Crude Oils from the Northernmost Fields in the Bolivar Coastal Complex (Zulia State, Venezuela)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-20, October.
    8. Jahanbani Veshareh, Moein & Thaysen, Eike Marie & Nick, Hamidreza M., 2022. "Feasibility of hydrogen storage in depleted hydrocarbon chalk reservoirs: Assessment of biochemical and chemical effects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    9. Armstrong, Claire W. & Foley, Naomi S. & Tinch, Rob & van den Hove, Sybille, 2012. "Services from the deep: Steps towards valuation of deep sea goods and services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 2(C), pages 2-13.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:426:y:2003:i:6964:d:10.1038_nature02134. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.