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Exponential growth means you could use a few hundred cells per type I guess.

Leaking these cells into the biosphere and contaminating every other oil source would be, no pun intended, unwell.

> doesn't pumping large volumes of liquids into the earth like this lead to all sorts of unintended consequences as well?

Is it better to have the large voids that were created when oïl was extracted?

This is not what an oil well looks like, and the article doesn't help with phrasing like "depleted cavern". An oil well is not a big cave filled with black, bubbling oil and a big "straw" poked into it. The hydrocarbons are held in the porosity of the rock, and pressures (both natural and introduced) force them to the wellbore. A very poor sponge is a better visible analogy, but even that over-represents the voids.

That's what fracking is. It doesn't sound like this new company would be pumping anywhere near as much water, under as much pressure or with as toxic a mix.