Abstract
Microbial reduction of sulfur compounds is a concern in many industries due to the toxicity and corrosivity of the chief metabolic waste product, hydrogen sulfide (H2S). In the oil and gas industry, production of H2S by microbes within the petroleum reservoir is extremely detrimental to production and often leads to complete shut-in of wells and entire assets due to these concerns. Hundreds of different genera of bacteria and archaea are capable of generating H2S from an array of sulfur-containing compounds, although the key enzymes involved are relatively well conserved. We have identified a class of inhibitory molecules that abrogate sulfidogenesis by numerous diverse microbial populations found within oilfield produced fluids. Using bottle tests and laboratory-scale bioreactors designed to more closely mimic field conditions, very low doses of two different versions of this class of compounds were found to effectively prevent H2S generation and decrease the number of sulfide-producing microbes from the population. Although not proven experimentally, by decreasing the amount of H2S generated, these compounds will likely be able to decrease the levels of microbiologically influenced corrosion normally associated with sulfidogenic populations of microbes.
