the waxy crude oil degradation and bacterial count as a function of time. It is observed
that the degradation rate of crude oil increased along with the increase in incubation time. Degradation of waxy
crude oil was observed to be 62% in 1 day and 80% after 10 days, and did not change thereafter. The degradation
rate grew rapidly between day 1 and 10. However, the degradation rate did not increase after day 10. At day 10, the
bacterial count has reached the maximum of 28×106 CFU/mL, and the same was maintained for a week and
decreased thereafter. The degradation of crude oil follows the same trend as microbial growth. According to
Bordenave et al. (2007) the individual bacteria could metabolize the crude oil only to a limited hydrocarbons and
the complete biodegradation requires mixture of different bacterial groups. In contrast to this, the results reveal that
the individual Bacillus subtilis could degrade wide range of hydrocarbons present in the crude oil.