Biosurfactant mediated microbial enhanced oil recovery and potential for application in some omani oil fields

Surfactants are one of the most versatile compounds widely used in industries, household, and pharmaceutical applications. But recent awareness for environmental pollution and recalcitrant nature of chemical surfactants encouraged using surfactants of biological origin - biosurfactants. Various types of biosurfactants are produced by different microorganisms, of which lipopeptides (surfactins and lichenysins) produced by spore-forming Bacilli species are quite industrially promising. These lipopeptide biosurfactants can be used for bioremediation, oil recovery, textile industry, medicinal use as well as in food industries. Petroleum industries have the largest applications for biosurfactants, where it can be used for microbial enhanced oil recovery. We have isolated and identified microorganisms indigenous as wells as exogenous to oil wells from Oman, which produce biosurfactants and have the potential to enhance oil recovery in declining oil reservoirs across the sultanate. The identification and preservation of those microbes is very important for the biodiversity conservation of the species belonging to this region.