Disclosed herein are feedstocks and methods of culturing A. pullulans for heavy
oil production. A method of producing heavy
oil can include providing one or more feedstocks comprising deacetylated and mechanically refined lignocellulosic
hydrolysate media and one or more nutritional carbon sources, culturing a
cell population comprising A. pullulans, or a genetically modified version thereof, on the one or more feedstocks, and generating the heavy oil using the
cell population.