Skip to main content
Log in

Bacterial Communities Associated with Production Facilities of Two Newly Drilled Thermogenic Natural Gas Wells in the Barnett Shale (Texas, USA)

  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Published:
Microbial Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We monitored the bacterial communities in the gas–water separator and water storage tank of two newly drilled natural gas wells in the Barnett Shale in north central Texas, using a 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing approach over a period of 6 months. Overall, the communities were composed mainly of moderately halophilic and halotolerant members of the phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria (classes Βeta-, Gamma-, and Epsilonproteobacteria) in both wells at all sampling times and locations. Many of the observed lineages were encountered in prior investigations of microbial communities from various fossil fluid formations and production facilities. In all of the samples, multiple H2S-producing lineages were encountered; belonging to the sulfate- and sulfur-reducing class Deltaproteobacteria, order Clostridiales, and phylum Synergistetes, as well as the thiosulfate-reducing order Halanaerobiales. The bacterial communities from the separator and tank samples bore little resemblance to the bacterial communities in the drilling mud and hydraulic-fracture waters that were used to drill these wells, suggesting the in situ development of the unique bacterial communities in such well components was in response to the prevalent geochemical conditions present. Conversely, comparison of the bacterial communities on temporal and spatial scales suggested the establishment of a core microbial community in each sampled location. The results provide the first overview of bacterial dynamics and colonization patterns in newly drilled, thermogenic natural gas wells and highlights patterns of spatial and temporal variability observed in bacterial communities in natural gas production facilities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Witze A (2007) Energy: that's oil, folks. Nature 445(7123):14–17

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hu E, Huang Z, Liu B, Zheng J, Gu X, Huang B (2009) Experimental investigation on performance and emissions of a spark-ignition engine fuelled with natural gas-hydrogen blends combined with EGR. Int J Hydrogen Energy 34:528–539

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Zhang H, Chen J, Guo S (2008) Preparation of natural gas adsorbents from high-sulfur petroleum coke. Fuel 87:304–311

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kerr RA (2010) Natural gas from shale bursts onto the scene. Sci 328(5986):1624–1626

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pollastro RM (2007) Total petroleum system assessment of undiscovered resources in the giant Barnett Shale continuous (unconventional) gas accumulation, Fort Worth Basin, Texas. AAPG Bull 91:551–578

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hill RJ, Jarvie DM, Zumberge J, Henry M, Pollastro RM (2007) Oil and gas geochemistry and petroleum systems of the Fort Worth Basin. AAPG Bull 91(4):445–473

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bowker KA (2007) Barnett Shale gas production, Fort Worth Basin: issues and discussion. AAPG Bull 91(4):523–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bowker KA (2003) Recent development of the Barnett Shale play. Fort Worth Basin. W Tex Geol Soc Bull 42:4–11

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fichter JK, Johnson K, French K, Oden R (2009) Biocides control Barnett shale fracturing fluid contamination. Oil & Gas J 107:38–44

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Magot M (2005) Indigenous microbial communities in oil fields. In: Ollivier B, Magot M (eds) Petroleum microbiology. ASM Press, Washington D.C., pp 21–33

    Google Scholar 

  11. Struchtemeyer CG, Davis JP, Elshahed MS (2011) Influence of the drilling mud formulation process on the bacterial communities in thermogenic natural gas wells from the Barnett shale. Appl Environ Microbiol 77(14):4744–4753

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Struchtemeyer CG, Elshahed MS (2011) Bacterial communities associated with hydraulic fracturing fluids in thermogenic natural gas wells in North Central Texas, USA. FEMS Microbiol Ecol. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6941.2011.01196.x

  13. Jan-Roblero J, Posadas A, Díaz Z, de la Serna J, García R, Hernández-Rodríguez C (2008) Phylogenetic characterization of bacterial consortia obtained of corroding gas pipelines in Mexico. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 24(9):1775–1784

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Cline JD (1969) Spectrophotometric determination of hydrogen sulfide in natural waters. Limnol Oceanogr 14:454–458

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hamady M, Walker JJ, Harris JK, Gold NJ, Knight R (2008) Error-correcting barcoded primers for pyrosequencing hundreds of samples in multiplex. Nature Methods 5:235–237

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Muyzer G, deWaal EC, Uitterlinden AG (1993) Profiling of complex microbial populations by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified genes coding for 16S rRNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 59:695–700

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Schloss PD, Westcott SL, Ryabin T, Hall JR, Hartmann M, Hollister EB, Lesniewski RA, Oakley BB, Parks DH, Robinson CJ, Sahl JW, Stres B, Thallinger GG, Van Horn DJ, Weber CF (2009) Introducing mothur: open-source, platform-independent, community-supported software for describing and comparing microbial communities. Appl Environ Microbiol 75(23):7537–7541

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. DeSantis TZ, Hugenholtz P, Larsen N, Rojas M, Brodie EL, Keller K, Huber T, Dalevi D, Hu P, Andersen GL (2006) Greengenes, a chimera-checked 16s rRNA gene database and workbench compatible with ARB. Appl Environ Microbiol 72(7):5069–5072

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. DeSantis TZ, Hugenholtz P, Keller K, Brodie EL, Larsen N, Piceno YM, Phan R, Andersen GL (2006) NAST: a multiple sequence alignment server for comparative analysis of 16S rRNA genes. Nucleic Acids Res 34:W394–W399

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Chao A, Lee S-M (1992) Estimating the number of classes via sample coverage. J Am Stat Assoc 87(417):210–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Chao A, Ma MC, Yang MCK (1993) Stopping rules and estimation for recapture debugging with unequal failure rates. Biometrika 80(1):193–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Weaver W, Shannon CE (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  23. Sørensen T (1948) A method of establishing groups of equal amplitude in plant sociology based on similarity of species and its application to analyses of the vegetation on Danish commons. Biol Skr/K Dan Vidensk Selsk 5:1–34

    Google Scholar 

  24. Gauthier MJ, Lafay B, Christen R, Fernandez L, Acquaviva M, Bonin P, Bertrand J-C (1992) Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus gen. nov., sp. nov., a new, extremely halotolerant, hydrocarbon-degrading marine bacterium. Int J Syst Bacteriol 42(4):568–576

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Collado L, Cleenwerck I, Van Trappen S, De Vos P, Figueras MJ (2009) Arcobacter mytili sp. nov., an indoxyl acetate-hydrolysis-negative bacterium isolated from mussels. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 59(6):1391–1396

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Grabowski A, Nercessian O, Fayolle F, Blanchet D, Jeanthon C (2005) Microbial diversity in production waters of a low-temperature biodegraded oil reservoir. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 54(3):427–443

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Wang L-T, Lee F-L, Tai C-J, Kuo H-P (2008) Bacillus velezensis is a later heterotypic synonym of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 58(3):671–675

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Dinsdale AE, Halket G, Coorevits A, Van Landschoot A, Busse H-J, De Vos P, Logan NA (2011) Emended descriptions of Geobacillus thermoleovorans and Geobacillus thermocatenulatus. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 61(8):1802–1810

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Maugeri TL, Gugliandolo C, Caccamo D, Stackebrandt E (2002) Three novel halotolerant and thermophilic Geobacillus strains from shallow marine vents. Syst Appl Microbiol 25(3):450–455

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Alain K, Pignet P, Zbinden M, Quillevere M, Duchiron F, Donval J-P, Lesongeur Fo, Raguenes Gr, Crassous P, Querellou Jl, Cambon-Bonavita M-A (2002) Caminicella sporogenes gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel thermophilic spore-forming bacterium isolated from an East-Pacific Rise hydrothermal vent. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 52(5):1621–1628

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Neria-González I, Wang ET, Ramírez F, Romero JM, Hernández-Rodríguez C (2006) Characterization of bacterial community associated to biofilms of corroded oil pipelines from the southeast of Mexico. Anaerobe 12(3):122–133

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Ravot G, Magot M, Ollivier B, Patel BKC, Ageron E, Grimont PAD, Thomas P, Garcia JL (1997) Haloanaerobium congolense sp. nov., an anaerobic, moderately halophilic, thiosulfate- and sulfur-reducing bacterium from an African oil field. FEMS Microbiol Lett 147(1):81–88

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Sette L, Simioni K, Vasconcellos S, Dussan L, Neto E, Oliveira V (2007) Analysis of the composition of bacterial communities in oil reservoirs from a southern offshore Brazilian basin. Anton Leeuw 91(3):253–266

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. van der Kraan GM, Bruining J, Lomans BP, Van Loosdrecht MCM, Muyzer G (2010) Microbial diversity of an oil–water processing site and its associated oil field: the possible role of microorganisms as information carriers from oil-associated environments. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 71(3):428–443

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Zhu XY, Lubeck J, Kilbane JJ II (2003) Characterization of microbial communities in gas industry pipelines. Appl Environ Microbiol 69(9):5354–5363

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Dahle H, Garshol F, Madsen M, Birkeland N-K (2008) Microbial community structure analysis of produced water from a high-temperature North Sea oil-field. Anton Leeuw 93(1):37–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Oren A, Pohla H, Stackebrandt E (1987) Transfer of Clostridium lortetii to a new genus Sporohalobacter gen. nov. as Sporohalobacter lortetii comb. nov. and description of Sporohalobacter marismortui sp. nov. Syst Appl Microbiol 9:239–246

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Rainey FA, Zhilina TN, Boulygina ES, Stackebrandt E, Tourova TP, Zavarzin GA (1995) The taxonomic status of the fermentative halophilic anaerobic bacteria: description of Haloanaerobiales ord. nov., Halobacteroidaceae fam. nov., Orenia gen. nov. and further taxonomic rearrangements at the genus and species level. Anaerobe 1(4):185–199

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Arahal DR, García MT, Vargas C, Cánovas D, Nieto JJ, Ventosa A (2001) Chromohalobacter salexigens sp. nov., a moderately halophilic species that includes Halomonas elongata DSM 3043 and ATCC 33174. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 51(4):1457–1462

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Lalucat J, Bennasar A, Bosch R, García-Valdés E, Palleroni NJ (2006) Biology of Pseudomonas stutzeri. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 70(2):510–547

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Orphan VJ, Taylor LT, Hafenbradl D, Delong EF (2000) Culture-dependent and culture-independent characterization of microbial assemblages associated with high-temperature petroleum reservoirs. Appl Environ Microbiol 66(2):700–711. doi:10.1128/aem.66.2.700-711.2000

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Pham VD, Hnatow LL, Zhang S, Fallon RD, Jackson SC, Tomb J-F, DeLong EF, Keeler SJ (2009) Characterizing microbial diversity in production water from an Alaskan mesothermic petroleum reservoir with two independent molecular methods. Environ Microbiol 11(1):176–187

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Scholz T, Demharter W, Hensel R, Kandler O (1987) Bacillus pallidus sp. nov., a new thermophilic species from sewage. Syst Appl Microbiol 9:91–96

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Gittel A, Sorensen KB, Skovhus TL, Ingvorsen K, Schramm A (2009) Prokaryotic community structure and sulfate reducer activity in water from high-temperature oil reservoirs with and without nitrate treatment. Appl Environ Microbiol 75(22):7086–7096

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Mori K, Tsurumaru H, Harayama S (2010) Iron corrosion activity of anaerobic hydrogen-consuming microorganisms isolated from oil facilities. J Biosci Bioeng 110(4):426–430

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Surkov AV, Dubinina GA, Lysenko AM, Glöckner FO, Kuever J (2001) Dethiosulfovibrio russensis sp. nov., Dethosulfovibrio marinus sp. nov. and Dethosulfovibrio acidaminovorans sp. nov., novel anaerobic, thiosulfate- and sulfur-reducing bacteria isolated from ‘Thiodendron’ sulfur mats in different saline environments. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 51(2):327–337

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Voordouw G, Armstrong SM, Reimer MF, Fouts B, Telang AJ, Shen Y, Gevertz D (1996) Characterization of 16S rRNA genes from oil field microbial communities indicates the presence of a variety of sulfate-reducing, fermentative, and sulfide-oxidizing bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 62(5):1623–1629

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Cord-Ruwisch R, Kleinitz W, Widdel F (1987) Sulfate-reducing bacteria and their activities in oil production. J Petrol Technol 1:97–106

    Google Scholar 

  49. Youssef NH, Elshahed MS, McInerney MJ (2009) Microbial processes in oil fields: culprits, problems, and opportunities. Adv Appl Microbiol 66:141–251

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Reema B. Davis and Dr. Noha H. Youssef for assistance critiquing the manuscript and technical assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mostafa S. Elshahed.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOCX 70 kb)

ESM 2

(DOCX 17 kb)

ESM 3

(DOCX 110 kb)

ESM 4

(DOC 79 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Davis, J.P., Struchtemeyer, C.G. & Elshahed, M.S. Bacterial Communities Associated with Production Facilities of Two Newly Drilled Thermogenic Natural Gas Wells in the Barnett Shale (Texas, USA). Microb Ecol 64, 942–954 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-012-0073-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-012-0073-3

Keywords

Navigation