Mapping the Bacterial Community in Digboi Oil Refinery, India by High-Throughput Sequencing Approach.

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MOER) is a technique which uses microbes to enhance the oil recovery process. This technique is advantageous to enhance oil recovery (EOR). In this study, we analyzed the bacterial communities of Digboi oil refinery and its surroundings using Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. A total of 12 samples were analyzed, 6 from inside the refinery areas and another 6 from the township areas. Alpha diversity studies indicated that diversity of bacterial communities in township area was higher than the refinery areas except for Sample 1. Sample 9 from the nearby pond of Digboi Centenary Park was more diverse in community composition. Proteobacteria was found to be most dominant phylum. Mantel test indicated that environmental factors had negative influence over the bacterial community structure. Among the environmental factors Fe was least significant (r2 = 0.368) as indicated by canonical correspondence analysis.