Bacteria could hold the key to help recover oil from Australia’s vast offshore deposits.

Microbes feeding on highly viscous oils can produce chemical changes to allow the residual oils to be extracted.

Presenting at the Oceans and the World’s Future conference in Cairns this week, Craig Roy from CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans Flagship, outlined some of the technologies under development in the Flagship which have potential applications for ocean-based industries.

“Microbially enhanced oil recovery will give us access to the thicker oils which at present cannot be extracted - just one example of the application of frontier technologies,” he said.

“Another example includes the extraction of offshore oil and gas by using sub-sea and down-hole technologies. This large-scale research has strong industry support and involvement. We could see the traditional platforms and surface facilities become structures of the past.”

Further oceans research is developing the Barcode of Life - a method of fish species identification based on DNA sequencing. This technology has wide ranging applications, from identifying whole fish, fins, canned products and fish eggs to historical specimens held in museums. This technology can identify accurately threatened and endangered species and possible new species.

According to Mr Roy, the Oceans and the World’s Future conference is an important occasion to plan for further discovery and potential uses of our oceans and in a responsible manner.

“Our oceans are poorly understood and their value to Australia is immense - their potential to reshape the prosperity of Australia is undeniable,” he said.

“But we are still in the discovery mode with much of our ocean knowledge, as only a relatively small amount of our oceans have been charted. We are still discovering new fauna and flora and mapping much of the ocean beds.”

CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship is focused on delivering ocean-based economic, social and environmental wealth to the nation through scientific, research and industry partnerships.

Original press release: Microbes join oil industry (CSIRO)