Recently, Yanto and Tachibana [39] reported petroleum hydrocarbon
biodegradation by Pestalotiopsis sp. NG007 in the range of
48–96% over 30 days. Chhatre et al. [1] reported a 70% degradation
of the major peaks resolved in GC of Bombay high crude oil by a
defined consortium constructed with four oil degrading bacterial
strains for their capability to degrade saturates and aromatics.
The present study demonstrates that the B. methylotrophicus USTBa
is capable of producing biosurfactant which possesses an efficient
crude oil degradation property and is potentially useful for bioremediation
of crude oil contaminated sites. The application of USTBa
for MEOR is currently under investigation and the results will be
published in due course.