Abstract
The activity of microorganisms is responsible for the corrosion of equipment, plugging of petroleum formation, and souring of the reservoir. The annual cost of biological corrosion to the oil and gas industry is estimated at $13.4 billion. Accurate, rapid bacterial bioburden population measurement is required to select, apply, and evaluate biocide applications. Oil and gas locations are commonly remote, and timely bacteria sample transportation is not feasible. The study documents the installation and testing of an automated device on a fresh water supply tank on an oil production site. The device used an enzyme targeted assay that is an established, proven, accurate and accepted assay that has been used in oil and gas applications for bacterial bioburden measurement for the past 14 years. The test method adjusts for temperature, reaction time and sample volume according to an algorithm and is used as a proxy for the total living bacterial bioburden per milliliter in a water sample. The device was operated three month and was successful in measuring the presence of high bacteria loads and the effect of biocide application and depletion. The device successfully conducted the bacteria assay and uploaded the data through a dedicated cell phone interface to an online display.
