[ClearCase_guy]

If oil is geological in nature rather than biological in nature, then perhaps oil can be found almost anywhere, providing a deep enough well is used.

I believe some fields that seemed to be "tapped out" have later been found to have "re-filled". Whether that means oil is a renewable resource may be debatable. But it seems to me that the supply of oil available to us on earth may be several orders of magnitude greater than we think.

[rustbucket]

... perhaps oil can be found almost anywhere, providing a deep enough well is used

If you go deep enough, you find more gas than oil. That is because deep hot burial eventually destroys large hydrocarbon molecules. High temperatures in laboratory experiments do the same thing.

Gold's theory turned conventional wisdom on its head and said that gas came up from below and was converted into heavier petroleum at shallower depths. Nice try, but he's dead wrong. Well, he's dead, that's for certain.

[lewislynn]

I believe some fields that seemed to be "tapped out"

When prices are down

have later been found to have "re-filled".

When prices are skyrocketing.