Isolation and Characterization of Biosurfactant/Biopolymer Producing Spore Forming Bacteria from Oil Contaminated Sites and Oil Field of Oman

Biosurfactants and biopolymers are key players for microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) mechanisms. These biomolecules can be produced In-situ or Ex-situ and can be utilised for enhancing oil recovery. In this study, several aerobic spore forming bacteria were isolated from diverse habitats for ex-situ MEOR. The selected 16 isolates were identified by 16s rRNA sequencing and screened for better biosurfactant and biopolymer production using different production medium at shake flask level. One Bacillus subtilis strain W19, was found to be a promising biosurfactant producer and it reduced ST and IFT from 72 to 27mN/m and from 46 to 3.3mN/m respectively in less than 20 hours.