This paper is a study dedicated to identify aerobic bacteria, which influence MIC phenomena in pipelines used in a seawater injection system in the Gulf of Mexico. Fifteen aerobic bacterial strains were isolated from a bioprobe exposed during 45 days in a seawater pipeline. Three bacterial strains named IMP-M1, IMP-M5 and IMP-M9 were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Three different available gene databases were consulted to perform the phylogenetic characterization. The sequence analysis shows that Vibrio hollisae is the closest match to the IMP-M1 strain however with a 5.86 % of difference in the genetic code. The IMP-M5 strain shows 1.25 % of difference in the genetic code with Alteromonas macleodii while the IMP-M9 shows 8.10% of difference in its genetic code with thermohalophilum. The last results suggest that bacterial strains under study may be new species. Electrochemical noise measurements (localization parameter) show that the presence of bacterial strains increase the pitting phenomena.
Keywords: Microbial Induced Corrosion, Aerobic Bacteria, Electrochemical Noise, Seawater Injection System, 16S rRNA gene sequence.