Sulfate-reducing bacteria drive microbially influenced corrosion, reservoir souring, and H2S generation across oil and gas operations. The serial dilution test—the current standard—takes weeks to confirm a positive result, long after the treatment window has closed. Retego Certus™ SRB returns quantitative microbiology data in 1–24 hours so you can optimize biocide, cut failures, and reduce maintenance spending.
Corrosion costs US oil and gas production an estimated 1.4 billion dollars a year. A significant share is microbially influenced corrosion driven by sulfate-reducing bacteria. SRB doesn't announce itself. By the time iron sulfide fouls a separator or H2S spikes a meter, the colony has been growing for weeks or months.
Sending samples to a lab adds days and cost, and risks degradation in transit. Faster methods exist, but they carry their own tradeoffs in cost, field readiness, and accuracy.
Every one of those workflows assumes you have time you don't actually have.
Retego Certus SRB returns a quantitative sulfate-reducing bacteria count in 1 to 24 hours, from a sample run where it was taken. Purpose-built for oilfield conditions: collect produced water, frac flowback or pipeline samples at the source and run the assay in the field. No shipping, no laboratory.
Questions? Send us a message sales@retegolabs.com
Learn more| Method | Time to Result | Location | Key drawback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retego Certus™ SRB | 1–24 hours | Field | SRB-specific |
| Serial dilution | Up to 28 days | Lab | Too slow to inform a treatment decision |
| ATP | Minutes | Field | Detects non-bacteria species |
| qPCR | Hours | Lab | Expensive equipment |
Retego Aegis runs Retego’s cuvette chemistry across minerals, corrosion drivers, and general water chemistry, returning a quantitative result for each in minutes. The detector measures the full chemistry and corrosion picture, grouped below.
Iron and metals: ferrous iron (Fe2+), ferric iron (Fe3+), total iron, low level iron, manganese, copper, lead, chromium (Cr(VI)).
Corrosion and scale drivers: sulfide (H2S), sulfate (SO4), chloride, halide, alkalinity, calcium hardness, magnesium.
General chemistry: pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, sodium, potassium, barium, boron, chlorine (free, total, residual). Specialty: PFAS/PFOS, perchlorate, fat oil and grease.
Predictive indices (calculated in the Retego app): Langelier, Puckorius, Ryznar, aggressive index, chloride to sulfate mass ratio, sodium adsorption ratio, dissolved inorganic carbon.