Patent ID: 7740063

Claim:
A method for identifying microorganisms from an oil reservoir useful for oil recovery comprising: (a) providing an environmental sample from an oil reservoir comprising an indigenous microbial population; (b) identifying the microbial genera present in said environmental sample by phylogenetic typing; (c) selecting one or more known pure culture species from a non-oil reservoir source corresponding to the genera identified in (b); and (d) screening the pure culture species identified in (c) for relevant functionalities to identify those microbial genera useful for enhanced oil recovery, wherein the relevant functionalities are selected from the group consisting of: the ability to use at least one component available in the oil reservoir as a carbon source; the ability to use at least one component in injected or produced water from the oil reservoir; the capability of achieving a desired growth rate in the presence of oil; and the ability to grow optimally in an oil well environment; and combinations thereof.