Mesophilic bacterial specie was isolated from an active Iranian oil well and together with another available bacterial strain was evaluated in tackling the well known wax problem. Both of the strains proved to grow on the crude as the sole carbon source while supported by inorganic salts, phosphorous and nitrogen sources. The growth phases had a lag phase of less than 1 day and lasted more than 1 week before entering the stationary phases. The optimum oxygen requirements of the bacteria were not large. The isolated bacterium was successful to decrease pH from 7 to 5.5, the initial surface tension of 65 to as low as 55 dyne/cm and the wax and asphaltene content as much as 27.8% and 10.6% respectively. These effects are expected to have a positive effect on the cloud and pour points, deposition tendency of the crude and/or emulsification of deposited wax in a sweeping medium such as injected water.

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