Detailed laboratory investigation is performed and results are discussed. In this study, the fusing and mixing of different bacteria strains are successfully conducted on multiple crude oil samples, with API gravity of 39, 34, and 30, while a sample of heavy crude oil with API gravity of 14.

The crude from the reservoir can be recovered to the surface using driving forces that can be evolved due to the by-product gases of microbes and the resultant elevated reservoir pressure. This research is performed on a laboratory scale, focused on crude oil samples screening, taken from shallow reservoirs with lower API gravity to study the impact of microbes on the viscosity reduction to cause the degradation of heavy oil into light oil. Improvement in the recovery of oil with the help of microbes could be achieved through several efficient mechanisms mainly through interfacial tension and wettability reduction.

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a tertiary oil recovery method which involves the injection of carefully screened microorganisms into the formation resulting in in situ fermentation to improve oil recovery performance.