据认为,地球上的大部分石油储量,因细菌活动而发生的原油的生物降解曾大大地降低了储集层中石油的质量。为了经济而又卓有成效地勘探石油,弄清导致石油降解在地层中的过程和条件,就成了至关重要的问题。虽然目前的研究推测表明,细菌活动很可能都是在高达150℃的温度下发生的,但是为人们所普遍接受的,则是在地质年代表上有效的石油生物降解一般都是在温度低于80℃的储集层中发生的。可是这似乎与未被降解的石油仍然能够在低于此温度的储集层中被发现这一观测结果并不一致。这里,我们收集了有关在某些油藏中石油生物降解范围的资料,发现广泛存在于浅而冷的盆地中的未被生物降解的石油都局限于地球深部温度较高地区所隆起的盆地。我们认为,这些油藏都曾在深埋过程中,由于受热使温度达到大约80～90℃而被灭菌与此同时,在深层生物圈中,即发生了促烃类降解的微生物变得不活泼。甚至当这些储集层隆起而成为更冷的地区且又为石油所填充时,也并未发生降解,这意味着被灭菌的沉积物并未成为促烃类降解的细菌的二次移居的场所。 It is believed that most of the oil reserves on Earth and the biodegradation of crude oil due to bacterial activity have greatly reduced the quality of oil in the reservoir. In order to conduct an economic and productive exploration of oil, it is of paramount importance to understand the processes and conditions that lead to the degradation of petroleum in the formation. Although current research suggests that bacterial activity is likely to occur at temperatures as high as 150 ° C, it is generally accepted that petroleum-based biodegradation at geologic chronology is generally performed at temperatures below 80 ° C in the reservoir occurred. However, this seems not to be inconsistent with the observation that undegraded oil can still be found in reservoirs below this temperature. Here, we collected data on the extent of petroleum biodegradation in some reservoirs and found that the non-biodegraded petroleum that is widely present in shallow, shallow basins is confined to basins that have been uplifted in the warmer parts of the Earth’s tem- perature. In our opinion, all of these reservoirs were sterilized during deep burial due to heat reaching temperatures of about 80-90 ° C. In the meantime, in the deep biosphere, microbes that have undergone hydrocarbon degradation become inactive . Degradation did not occur even when these reservoirs were uplifted to colder areas and were filled with oil, meaning that the sterilized sediments did not become the second migratory bacteria to promote hydrocarbon degradation place.