AAPG Studies in Geology No. 48 / SEG Geophysical References
Series No. 11, Chapter 19: Case Histories of Microbial Prospection for Oil
and Gas, Onshore and Offshore in Northwest Europe, by Manfred
Wagner, Martin Wagner, Joachim Piske, and Robert Smit, Pages 453 - 479
from:
AAPG Studies in Geology No. 48 /
SEG Geophysical References Series No. 11: Surface
Exploration Case Histories: Applications of Geochemistry, Magnetics, and Remote Sensing,
Edited by Dietmar Schumacher and Leonard A. LeSchack
Copyright © 2002 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the
Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.
Chapter 19
Case Histories of Microbial Prospection for Oil and Gas, Onshore and Offshore in
Northwest Europe
Manfred Wagner
MicroPro GmbH
Gommern, Germany
Martin Wagner
MicroPro GmbH
Gommern, Germany
Joachim Piske
Erd
l-Erdgas Gommern GmbH
Gommern, Germany
Robert Smit
VEBA Oil Nederland B.V.
The Hague, Netherlands
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the Microbial Prospection for Oil and Gas (MPOG) method, which uses
microbiological techniques to explore for oil and gas. These techniques are based on the
principle that light hydrocarbons from oil and gas fields escape to the earth's surface,
and this increased hydrocarbon supply above the fields creates conditions favorable for
the development of highly specialized bacterial populations that feed on the hydrocarbons.
This leads to significant increases in the microbial cell numbers and cell activity of
these specialized microbes.
