[Ecologic conditions for the spread of methane-forming bacteria in the petroleum strata of Apsheron].

The distribution of methan producing bacteria was studied in oil bearing strata of the Apsheron Peninsula and was shown to depend on ecological conditions: the total mineralization of stratal water, the content of hydrogen sulfide, sulfates, the pH, the extent of penetration of surface waters. The bacteria was found in 11 among 14 stratal water samples taken from the studied oil deposits. The flooding of oil collectors with surface waters was shown to be one of the factors responsible for the distribution of methane producing bacteria in the stratal waters of oil deposits. Methane producing cenoses were found in stratal water whose mineralization varied from 17 to 84.8 g per litre and the content of hydrogen sulfide varied from 0 to 585 mg per litre. Most of the samples contained also sulfate reducing bacteria which grew in a medium with lactate, as well as fermenting microorganisms which grew in the presence of peptone and glucose and supplied methane producing bacteria with their substrates, viz. H2, CO2 and acetate. Preliminary experiments in which methane was produced from oil via a two-stage process suggest that flooding favours the formation of oil oxidation products in the strata and these products serve as substrates for the growth of microbial cenoses producing methane.