The Evidence for Limitless Oil and Gas
Posted by slowsmile September 7, 2008
“The suggestion that petroleum might have arisen from some transformation of squashed fish or biological detritus is surely the silliest notion to have been entertained by substantial numbers of persons over an extended period of time.”
Fred Hoyle 1982
My own layman’s view — as we all surely believe — has always been that oil and gas were derived through the natural and long decomposition of organic detritus. Therefore I’ve always believed that oil is a finite resource and that it will eventually run out. But recently - and after much hard searching out of the facts, my view has changed. If the Russian view that oil and gas are continuously formed or replaced from a physical/chemical thermodynamic process that continously regenerates oil from ultra-deep locations(>9,000 metres), then the inference here is that oil may, perhaps, not be a finite resource — and that there is plenty of it.
Oil and Gas Origins - Biogenic or Abiotic ?
Do oil and gas originate from the biological decomposition of organic material (biogenic) or do they originate simply through a natural physical and chemical thermodynamic process involving just heat and pressure (abiotic) ?
It is notable that the whole of Hubbert’s Theory of Peak Oil rests completely on the assumption that oil is biogenic in origin. Therefore oil is a finite resource. Simply everyone believes this, because everyone believes that this is a proven fact. I have also read that this Biogenic Theory directly contradicts and offends the Second Law of Thermodynamics. I became suspicious, so I searched all over the internet for substantiative proof — and particularly the research articles in Google Scholar.
Evidence for The Biogenic Theory
- In 1757 Russian Scientist, Mikhailo Lomonosov put forward a hypothesis and suggested that oil came from biological detritus.
- In his paper “The Abiotic Oil Controversy” by Richard Heinberg which sides with biogenic oil (With relatively little actual quoted research evidence) has even admitted :
“There is no way to conclusively prove that no petroleum is of abiotic origin…Perhaps one day there will be general agreement that at least some oil is indeed abiotic. Maybe there are indeed deep methane belts twenty miles below the Earth’s surface. But the important question to keep in mind is: What are the practical consequences of this discussion now for the problem of global oil depletion? “
Lomonosov
The normal geologists view is that all oil and gas formation is biogenic. So I began with Wikipedia which indeed puts forth and recognised the theories of both Biogenic and Abiotic oil and gas origin. And although there has been clear, modern Russian research evidence cited for the theory of Abiotic Oil formation - oddly - there were no proper citations or references for the Biogenic theory on Wikipedia. I searched the internet including Google Scholar and there seems to be no ‘absolute proof’ from direct modern research for the Biogenic Theory of oil and gas formation. This theory — for want of a better word — seems to be greatly ‘assumed’ by geologists throughout geological research.
Evidence for the Abiotic Theory
I am certainly surprised to admit that there is such a large body of research on this theory — and all mainly Russian in origin. But this modern research — which is very detailed, seems to have been generally and surprisingly ignored by the West.
- In the 19th century various abiogenic hypotheses were first proposed after advances in science in the nineteenth century by Alexander von Humboldt, Dmitri Mendeleev and Marcellin Berthalot.
Nikolai Kudraysvtsev
- An Article called Dismissal of the Claims of a Biological Connection to Biogenic Oil by J F Kenney. This is a detailed and scientifically rigourous paper which sets sets out to disprove all the various “fuzzy” assumptions for the Theory of Biogenic Oil. This was the article that completely convinced me of the truth of Abiotic Oil Formation.
- Abiogenic(Abiotic) Petroleum Origin - Wikipedia
- “An Introduction to the Modern Petroleum Science, and to the Russian-Ukrainian Theory of Deep, Abiotic Petroleum Origins” by J.F. Kenney, Russian Academy of Sciences.
- In the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Scientific Publications’ section of GasResources.net there are many bona fide Russian research articles.
- A Dissertation by J.F. Kenney(Joint Institute of the Physics of the Earth Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow). Here is an extract:
“ABSTRACT: For almost a century, various predictions have been made that the human race is imminently going to run out of available petroleum. The passing of time has proven all those predictions to have been utterly wrong. It is pointed out here how all predictions have
depended fundamentally upon anarchaic hypothesis from the 18th century that petroleum somehow (miraculously) evolve from biological detritus, and is accordingly limited in abundance. That hypothesis has been replaced during the past forty years by the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins which has established that petroleum is a primordial material erupted from great depth. Therefore, petroleum abundances are limited by little more than the quantities of its constituents as were incorporated into the Earth at the time of its formation; and its availability depends upon technological development and exploration competence.”
- A Russian Book - ‘ Advanced Drilling Solutions’ detailing deep and ultra-deep oil drilling technology beyond the Earth’s crust and sedimentary layers to depths of over 40,000 ft’.
- Confirmation that oil fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk Basin in the Ukraine are Aboitic
Apparent Disinformation and Prejudicial Judgement of the Abiotic Theory
It is peculiar that there is so little Western acknowledgement or research verification concerning the utra-deep Russian Abiotic Oil formation theory. Surely this is suspicious and bears investigating — even if you don’t believe the theory — because this would certainly remove the geopolitical effects and problems of the current thinking on oil — that it is running out. Concerning this theory, I have also found some evidence of plagiarism, disinformation and misrepresentation of research data regarding the Russian Abiotic Theory by fairly eminent western scientists and western news resources :
- Accusations of Plagiarism and Misrepresentation of Abiotic Russian Research on Thomas Gold a well kn
own US scientist. - Rebuttal of article “Fossil fuel without Fossils” (Nature magazine, T. Clark, 12 August 2002) by J. F. Kenney, V. G. Kutcherov, N. A. Bendeliani, V. A. Alekseev, (2002).
Conclusions
In the end, I tend to agree with Richard Heinberg in that Oil and Gas formation is probably both biogenic as well as abiotic as I have no reason to believe otherwise. And if this is the case, why are people saying that we are running out of oil ? — Since the abiotic theory of oil maintains that there is a huge, untapped amount of oil already deep within the Earth’s mantle.
See my follow-up article Deep Oil, Deep Power and Deep Pockets in answer to the above question.
September 7th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
NASA in conjuction with ESA, European Space Agency,recently announced the finding of large pools of hydrocarbons on Saturns moon, Titan. The Cassini probe has done multiple fly overs of the moon and confirmed the findings. This is proof that oil can be abiotic in origin.
See the web site for more information
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCSUUHJCF_index_0.html
September 7th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Thank you for your kind remarks and pointing out that fact. I have also read that it has been proved that Halley’s Comet is also covered in a tar-like substance related to oil. Regarding this article — I also had to restrict some of the evidence - because the article was getting too big !!
But further questions arise out of my discovery of the possibility ‘Limitless Oil’. Why are western scientists — geologists, geophysicists etc — not studying this theory as a solution to Peak Oil? Why do they keep trashing what seems to me to be a theory that is certainly reasonable as well as possible ? Is it because The Big Oil Baron’s want to drive the oil price up in their bid to make even more profit ? Limitless oil would drive oil prices down.
I will be doing a follow up article about this soon.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
[...] The Evidence for Limitless Oil and Gas [...]
September 10th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Guys,
Get a reality check !
Read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
and read the sections on endless abiotic oil.
Kenney, Kutcherov etc are good old fashioned scientific frauds: everything they claim,
(apart from that abiotic gas exist, which everyone agrees upon) are easy to prove: pure crazy fabrications. In addition Kenney’s “company” is a cover story. No Gas or Oil company with that name exist. Gas Resources Inc. is simply a website lure of Kenney.
Gas Resources Inc. have never drilled a single oil or gas well. Everything is pure fantasy !
Kenney is a physicist, who clearly was not involved with “deep oil drilling” during his study days (working with the magnetosphere) as he claims
September 10th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Michel…I have studied and read the link that you say disproves the Russian abiotic theory. I have also re-read Kenney et al’s discourse paper on “The Dismissal of the Claims of a Biological Connection for Biological Oil” on his Gas Resources websit. In a comparison of the two, I notice that there are no explanations given for kerogens etc being found on comets — structures in space that support no life, and there is no real evidence presented to explain re-discoveries of oil (made after many years of extraction by US companies) in both Ukraine and Vietnam by the Russians by just drilling lower down towards basement rock. The evidence against abiotic oil formation provided by the Wiki site is disparate, disorganized and weak. The evidence provided by the Russian Theory, clearly presented by Kenney et al, is well presented, easy to understand and seems to completely refute the biogenic claims. And your trashing of this rebuttal by Kenney et al still does not refute that the common biogenic theory clearly offends The Second Law of Thermodynamics. Your wiki article makes no attempt at refuting the description and evidence of The Fischer Tropsch process — a confirmed and well known theory that describes how petrol hydrocarbons can, indeed, be formed from a thermodynamic process. And the so called “evidence” of biomarkers within oil — Oil is normally surrounded by sandstone or some form of permeable, polluted rock — and what does this contain? Right again — biological detritus…Therefore, biomarkers in crude oil prove absolutely nothing. The Russian article further goes on at great pains to prove that the optical activity of natural petroleum is unquestionably from high-pressure origins. All this body of evidence seems to have been completely ignored by the wiki article, therefore its proof is insufficient.
Also, other well respected scientists — such as Fred Hoyle — seem to find the Biogenic Theory of Oil — in regard to its logic or lack of it — quite peculiar and scientifically amusing.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Very interesting, thanks for posting this article. If this were true, and there were no limit to oil, then why the heck are the top oil companies digging up the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, whilst using more expensive production methods?
It is evident to the best and brightest people in the geology department, that oil is indeed a finite resource and yes, there is much of it left, but how cost effective is it to produce? The cheap stuff is running out, or gone.
Oil is just one of many problems, what about all the other finite resources that we must waste in order to keep the mythical value system going?
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:38 am
When I researched this article, like you, I initially believed oil was a finite resource. But there seems to be far more actual evidence for the Russian Abiotic Oil Theory than for the commonly assumed Biogenic Oil Theory and the possible reasons for promoting Peak Oil are obvious. Higher oil prices, more profit etc for the oil companies.
Regarding Peak Water and Peak Food, these problems will also arrive soon, unstoppably, because of over-population.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:25 am
Yes, I thought that as well, I thought well who did M.King Hubbert work for? He worked for Shell oil, and of course they’re going to want to create the perception of scarcity, to keep the costs up, but then I started to do the simple arithmetic and the reality of it started to sink in.
If you care to learn about how to factor in the exponential function, google on Arithmetic, Population And Energy, it’s a short film by Professor Albert Bartlett, it will give you another hint of what’s going on here.