Even if conventional oil, which has been proven to be a fossil fuel many times, is somehow inorganic, then it's not really helping us right now, is it? You're right about about using more than we can find; listening to some flawed theory about the origins of oil won't stop us from reproducing, using inexpensive oil in the most gluttonous way possible, and maintaining the impossible growth system.

I have to agree on the golf course issue. The sheer amount of wasted water, fertilizer, fuel, etc that goes into maintaining the tens of thousands of golf courses on this planet is just absurd.

It will be an interesting analysis that the gov'ts do when they start looking for potential energy efficiencies during the transition period once peak oil is recognized. Many of our leisure activities that are just HUGELY wasteful will need to be discouraged. I doubt they will be banned, but they might be taxed out of financial feasibility.

At least people enjoy golf courses.

What about dry cleaners? They are horribly wasteful and polluting. And does anyone really like having to wear dry-clean only clothes? Mostly, it's business clothes that are dry-cleaned. Wool suits, worn even in summer. Then we air-condition the heck out of our office buildings, so people are comfortable in their wool suits and ties.

Google "Eugene Island" and "dry hole". You will find that the "proof" of abiotic oil, namely Eugene Island is coming up dry in all the latest exploratory drillings.

Then search for "exploration geologist" on Monster.com. You will find one (1) job posting.
http://mobjectivist.blogspot.com/2004/07/prophecy.html

And then the one authentic source of petroleum, peat bogs, may be contributing to global warming in unexpected ways:
See http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/070904G.shtml

sigh

it seems there is no single "truth" to where oil comes from either. I am certainly not qualified to say which side is correct on this issue.

Isnt life great folks? So much to scratch our head about. :D

I've heard the theory too. But where is this oil? How can we get at it if there is so much of it?

The theory is that basically hydrogen is bubbling up from the earth into traps where we drill for it. OK, does that mean that there's more oil bubbling up and that if we drill in Texas we'll find the oil wells have filled up again? Ye-hah!

Or maybe they're filling up so slowly it's a mute point?

I've never heard the answer to these questions.

Theory with large body of evidence in circulation that oil is not solely of organic origin, but that there may be another mode of origin as well from deeper in the crust, involving magma.

http://www.greaterthings.com/News/FreeEnergy/Directory/Theory/SustainableOil/

Even if that's true, it's not coming up to the crust fast enough to slake world demand. There are plenty of other threads to discuss this issue on.

I did some web searching for information on Dr. Gold and the abiotic theory of hydrocarbon creation. I noticed that most of the sites backing the abiotic theory were non-scientific. The best rebuttals to the abiogenic theory that I came up with were from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists at this web site:

http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2002/11nov/abiogenic.cfm

and Dr. John Clarke, a geologist and astrobiologist from Australia (his bio is at this link:

http://aca.mq.edu.au/People/jclarke.htm

I e-mailed Dr. Clark and received permission to post a rebuttal he posted in another forum to the theory of abundant abiotic oil:

The fact remains that the abiotic theory of petroleum genesis has zero credibility for economically interesting accumulations. 99.9999% of the world's liquid hydrocarbons are produced by maturation of organic matter derived from organisms. To deny this means you have to come up with good explanations for the following observations.

1) The almost universal association of petroleum with sedimentary rocks.

2) The close link between petroleum reservoirs and source rocks as shown by biomarkers (the source rocks contain the same organic markers as the petroleum, essentially chemically fingerprinting the two).

3) The consistent variation of biomarkers in petroleum in accordance with the history of life on earth (biomarkers indicative of land plants are found only in Devonian and younger rocks, that formed by marine plankton only in Neoproterozoic and younger rocks, the oldest oils containing only biomarkers of bacteria).

3) The close link between the biomarkers in source rock and depositional environment (source rocks containing biomarkers of land plants are found only in terrestrial and shallow marine sediments, those indicating marine conditions only in marine sediments, those from hypersaline lakes containing only bacterial biomarkers).

4) Progressive destruction of oil when heated to over 100 degrees (precluding formation and/or migration at high temperatures as implied by the abiogenic postulate).

5) The generation of petroleum from kerogen on heating in the laboratory (complete with biomarkers), as suggested by the biogenic theory.

6) The strong enrichment in C12 of petroleum indicative of biological fractionation (no inorganic process can cause anything like the fractionation of light carbon that is seen in petroleum).

7) The location of petroleum reservoirs down the hydraulic gradient from the source rocks in many cases (those which are not are in areas where there is clear evidence of post migration tectonism).

8 ) The almost complete absence of significant petroleum occurrences in igneous and metamorphic rocks (the rare exceptions discussed below).

The evidence usually cited in favour of abiogenic petroleum can all be better explained by the biogenic hypothesis e.g.:

9) Rare traces of cooked pyrobitumens in igneous rocks (better explained by reaction with organic rich country rocks, with which the pyrobitumens can usually be tied).

10) Rare traces of cooked pyrobitumens in metamorphic rocks (better explained by metamorphism of residual hydrocarbons in the protolith).

11) The very rare occurrence of small hydrocarbon accumulations in igneous or metamorphic rocks (in every case these are adjacent to organic rich sedimentary rocks to which the hydrocarbons can be tied via biomarkers).

12) The presence of undoubted mantle derived gases (such as He and some CO2) in some natural gas (there is no reason why gas accumulations must be all from one source, given that some petroleum fields are of mixed provenance it is inevitable that some mantle gas contamination of biogenic hydrocarbons will occur under some circumstances).

13) The presence of traces of hydrocarbons in deep wells in crystalline rock (these can be formed by a range of processes, including metamorphic synthesis by the fischer-tropsch reaction, or from residual organic matter as in 10).

14) Traces of hydrocarbon gases in magma volatiles (in most cases magmas ascend through sedimentary succession, any organic matter present will be thermally cracked and some will be incorporated into the volatile phase, some fischer-tropsch synthesis can also occur).

15) Traces of hydrocarbon gases at mid ocean ridges (such traces are not surprising given that the upper mantle has been contaminated with biogenic organic matter through several billion years of subduction, the answer to 14 may be applicable also).

The geological evidence is utterly against the abiogenic postulate.

Cheers

Jon Clarke

Is it possible to archive Dr. Clarke's point by point reasoning as a reference somewhere on the site ?

That's a great idea. I'm sure Dr. Clarke would give his permission, in the name of science. Given how often the question of abiotic oil comes up here, having some kind of FAQ or boilerplate response would be very useful. Plus, it's really interesting in its own right, for people who have wondered how we know oil is organic.

We’re starting work on the FAQ and Encyclopedia right now in fact. Thanks Dv, for getting an OK from Dr. Clark. I’ll try to get that on one or both locations.

I also like mine:

"If you believe in abiotic energy sources, then Please explain the existence of coal"

This connection is similar to seeing chimpanzees and gorillas for the first time and then realizing the evolutionary ladder makes a bit of sense.

Matt,

What's your take on these two articles?

Thx,
Riddick

http://www.gasresources.net/energy_resources.htm

http://www.reformation.org/oil-monopoly.html