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Pieces of stones and other solid materials found in the oil lake sites of the Kuwaiti desert appeared clean, providing indications of surface-associated enhanced crude oil degradation. Scanning electron microscope studies revealed that such surfaces were colonized by active microbial populations. The colonization of the stone surfaces was concentrated within crevices. When enriched from washed pieces of stones from the oil lake, the resulting mixed population of adherent microorganisms degraded much more crude oil (44.4%) in the presence of inert carrier materials (styrofoam chips) in laboratory cultures, than in the absence of the inert materials (21.8%). The inert materials were found to be extensively colonized by microorganisms just as was observed with the stone and other solid samples from the oil lake. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.