Forty-nine species and two species varieties belonging to 22 genera isolated on
glucose and 1% crude oil Czapek's agar medium from 48 soil samples contaminated with
mazot and solar collected from three governorates in Upper Egypt namely, El-Minya,
Assiut and Sohag. The most common genus was Aspergillus which isolated from three
governorates and from both soil types, while the most common species was Aspergillus
fumigatus on mazot polluted soil and Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus and
Aspergillus terreus on solar polluted soils. Out of these fungal species, 40 isolates were
tested for their ability to utilize crude oil in liquid culture at 28 ±1ºC. Only 32 isolates
subjected to lipase activity test. Remarkably, on these tested isolates 35 isolate have been
grown, 5 isolates have been growing without producing the enzyme and 5 isolates not
grown. The highest lipase activity observed by Fusarium verticilloides giving 12.28 U/ml.