Isolation and Characterization of Crude Oil Degrading Bacteria from Contaminated Soil

Abstract

Sara Shaikh, Zaheer Hasan, Tisha Patel and Chetana Roat

In this modern world the need for petroleum products has highly increased for the contribution of modern lifestyles. Petroleum products are complex mixtures which are mainly derived from crude oil and they are processed in oil refineries. Gasoline and diesel are some of the petroleum products refined with high allocation of energy from the oil refineries. When organisms encoun- ter levels of oil or its by products they may experience adverse effects. The severity of these effects depends on the type of oil, the quantity present, how the environment interacts with it and the health status of the organisms when exposed to it (Obire and Anyanwu, 2009). The shift in the economic base of coal to crude oil and petroleum products, more especially after WWII, greatly increased the volume of these commodities being transported across the high seas. Incidents of oil spills have become a com- mon problem in environmental pollution that endangers biota of the contaminated region. Such incidents have become a global problem particularly in industrialized countries and developing countries like Nigeria. According to Best and Seiyefa, (2014), an average of 240,000 barrels of crude oil are spilled in the Niger delta every year, mainly due to unknown causes (31.85%), third party activity (20.74%), and mechanical failure (17.04%) (Best and Seiyefa, 2014).

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