Since this process occurs via an intermediate separate family of bacteria that produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen from partly degraded oil, prior to it being turned into methane.

What if we skip the ontermediate bacteria and skip the oil and then use a solar collector or wind mill to generate electricity that would then drive an electrolisys reaction in water to create H2. Then the H2 could be injected it into a chamber filled with CO2 (Something we aparently need to get rid of) and these special methane producing microbes?

Would the chamber get converted to methane that then could be used to power a car or heat a home? Would we need to add additional raw carbon to the chamber as a food source? How fast can these microbes covert a kilo of carbon and some CO2+H2 into usable methane?

Net metering would be a cinch in natural gas systems! All you would need is a compressor! Or maybe the bacteria could create a natural compression for you as a byproduct.

You would get rid of CO2 (and win that silly prize) and create a new source of completely renewable methane. The only input would be some electricity used to create the intermediate product of H2. You would also yield O2 as a byproduct.

Come on...You people pretend to know science. I only know accounting.