Corrosion costs between 1-5% of global gross domestic product annually. Microbiologically influenced corrosion is believed to contribute to around 20% of this. Due to the complexity of the microbial populations involved the mechanisms of many of these processes are still poorly understood. Culture based methods such as MPNs and isolation only reveal a very small proportion of the microorganisms present meaning that potentially problematic microorganisms are overlooked and not suitably targeted for mitigation.Due to revolutionary advances in DNA sequencing technologies with platforms such as Roche’s 454 Pyrosequencing and Illumina’s MiSeq collectively known as next-generation sequencing (NGS) we are now able to sequence and identify many thousands of microorganisms in a single sample. By looking at the DNA sequences from these samples (metagenomics) we can identify what microorganisms are abundant (amplicon metagenomics) what the microorganisms are doing and even what they are capable of doing (shotgun metagenomics).This wealth of information can be used to better understand specific corrosion mechanisms target groups of microorganisms responsible and ultimately predict and control MIC. We present herein case studies where these new technologies have been used including identification of microorganisms responsible for biofouling produced water systems and how the information gained has been used to target mitigation strategies to minimise the impact that microorganisms have in the oil and gas industry.