interesting theory here:
http://www.gsanctuary.com/3craters.html#fig3
Posted on 10/07/2006 6:33:48 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
The Earth has suffered thousands of violent collisions with asteroids and comets over the last four billion years. The scars from these collisions are impact craters. But the Earth hides its wounds well -- less than two hundred impact craters have been discovered. Many are buried deep below the surface. They were only found by accident during geological surveys that were part of the massive, ongoing effort to find oil for an energy-dependent world.
If Russian theories about the non-biological origin of much of our oil prove to be accurate, then there may be good reasons for oil prospectors to go searching for impact craters.
Where does oil come from?
"Rock oil originates as tiny bodies of animals buried in the sediments which, under the influence of increased temperature and pressure acting during an unimaginably long period of time transform into rock oil" -- M.V. Lomonosov 1757AD.
Maybe it's time to change the textbooks.
For two centuries Lomonosov's simple and compelling theory on the origin of oil went unchallenged. It meant, of course, that the world would run out of this fuel once the rare sedimentary rocks that contained the bodies of animals were drained of oil. It also meant that so-called basement rocks, which had never been near the surface of the Earth, would not bear oil.
The Russians decided to try something different. In the 1950s, perhaps due to the pressures of the Cold War, they started to hunt for oil according to a new theory -- most oil occurred naturally, deep within the Earth's crust, and had nothing to do with rotting organisms. That hunt has been highly successful, and the former Soviet states have many commercial oil wells apparently producing from deep basement rocks.
Tom Gold, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell University, supports the Russian idea. In his book The Deep, Hot Biosphere, Gold discusses the discovery of life deep within the Earth' s crust. He argues that most oil and gas could only have come from non-biological sources much deeper underground.
According to this theory, the natural traps formed by impact formations will be even more promising as places to look for oil because the "source rocks" containing the oil are everywhere.
Liquid gold in the rubble of an impact crater
Wham! 65 million years ago a huge asteroid hit the Earth in a shallow sea off the coast of Mexico. A crater perhaps 150 miles or more across was briefly formed in the seafloor and chunks of rock were scattered in mile-thick layers for hundreds of miles in all directions. Tsunami from the impact churned up more piles of broken rocks on coastlines thousands of miles away.
Over time, layers of sediment covered the impact scars and they lay undisturbed for millions of years. Then, only several decades ago, prospectors started looking for oil in the region, unaware that the Chicxulub crater lay buried deep beneath them. They were very successful, and commercial oil production began. But it was not until 1990 that the signs of a crater were recognized. The rubble from that impact is now thought to be the source of most of Mexico's vast oil reserves. Geologists are beginning to see that impact crater formations make good traps for oil.
How it gets there
Oil from deep underground gradually works its way upward through cracks and fissures in rocks. Oil prospectors get excited if the "reservoir rocks" that contain the oil are covered by a contorted layer of "cap rocks" because this can confine oil in natural reservoirs. An oil well is usually drilled until it breaks through the cap rocks and reaches the oil-saturated reservoir rocks below.
The rubble from an impact often forms a porous rock known as breccia that is full of cracks and fissures -- making it excellent for extracting oil through a well. Domes, basins, deep cracks, along with crumpled, folded landforms are other typical features of an impact crater that make them promising for oil prospectors.
There are hundreds of thousands of oil wells in the United States, but only a dozen or so are known to be associated with impact structures. Like Chicxulub, none of the craters were discovered until after commercial production of oil began. Geologist Richard Donofrio of Oklahoma City points out that drilling an impact structure is much more likely to be successful than drilling other types of formations.
Deep under the layers of sedimentary rocks that cover most of the United States there should be at least 20 undiscovered impact craters. Canada's geology is different and most craters are on or near the surface. Donofrio therefore went through the exercise of randomly superimposing the distribution of known Canadian impact craters on a map of the U.S. Using conservative assumptions he came up with an estimate of the oil-producing potential of undiscovered impact craters in the U.S. His conclusion is staggering -- 50 billion barrels -- double the current proven American reserves.
Geoscientist John Gorter from Perth, Western Australia has studied the petroleum potential of Australian impact structures. He also believes that impact craters make very promising sites for oil exploration. The most interesting, and speculative, of the Australian sites is the Bedout Structure some 200 miles off the coast of Broome. There are tentative signs that this was originally a crater 160 miles in diameter -- perhaps bigger than Chicxulub. If it does turn out to be a large impact crater, there could be huge reserves of oil in the region.
The Bedout Structure could also be of interest to paleontologists -- its possible age of 250 million years corresponds with the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian period.
Tar-coated comets and oily asteroids
The idea that complex hydrocarbons (the main components of petroleum oil) are a natural part of the Earth's crust should come as no surprise to scientists who study comets and asteroids. Some of the meteorites that fall to Earth are rich in tar-like hydrocarbons. Comets such as Halley and Hale-Bopp are thought to have a skin of tar-like material covering a "dirty snowball" -- like an ice cream dipped in chocolate.
The early Earth was made of the same stuff as comets and asteroids, so the presence of hydrocarbons deep within the Earth is to be expected. It used to be thought that the fierce heat deep underground was sufficient to break up any hydrocarbon molecules. However, Russian scientists have demonstrated that the enormous pressures prevent this.
Even if the Earth did not manage to retain its original supply of hydrocarbons it is likely that the rain of comets, space dust and asteroids over billions of years would have kept the crust of the Earth topped off with the raw ingredients for oil.
Could there be too much oil?
Oil is best found near impact structures. Oil forms deep underground from non-biological processes. If these ideas prove correct then Donofrio's estimates for the United States should apply to other parts of the world. For areas of similar size there are possibly 20 buried impact craters with perhaps half having commercial oil reserves. The search for these elusive craters could be very rewarding.
It may turn out that there is too much oil for our own good. A massive increase in known oil reserves could lower oil prices and drastically devalue existing reserves.
A longer-term problem is that an unchecked increase in oil consumption could place untenable strain on the global environment. Already human activities in our oil-dependent society have led to alarming species extinction rates. An oil glut could accelerate this problem.
It would be ironic if the Chicxulub impact event turned out to be a time bomb that was not only associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species at the end of the Cretaceous Period, but also with another mass extinction resulting from human activities some 65 million years later.
Glossary
Basement rocks are rocks that have never been near the surface of the Earth. They lie under the top layer of rocks, most of which are sedimentary and have been recycled many times by erosion.
Cap rocks are rocks that are impervious -- they resist the flow of fluids such as water, oil and gas and trap these fluids in rocks below.
Organic molecules are simply molecules that contain carbon. This does not mean that they have anything to do with organisms or life. As Carl Sagan pointed out in his book "Comet," astronomers tend to be nervous about the word organic because of concern that it might be misunderstood as a token of life. So they use the term "carbonaceous" to describe meteorites that are rich in carbon compounds. Kerogen is a tar-like organic compound found in some meteorites (and in over-cooked hamburgers on Earth).
Reservoir rocks act as reservoirs for oil. They have sufficient cracks and fissures to allow the oil to flow into the well. Reservoir rocks must be covered by cap rocks to prevent the oil seeping up to the surface and escaping.
Source rocks are those in which oil is generated. The classical view is that source rocks must have layers containing the bodies of dead plants and animals and that these gradually change to oil. The controversial view is that all basement rocks have the potential to be source rocks because oil has non-biological origins deep within the Earth.
But it comes as a big surprise who have no scientific background.
This must mean that Saudi Arabia has had a lot of astroid hits.
This makes the moon a LOT more interesting.
I am not averse to alternative theories of where petroleum comes from. But they need to do a better job than this.
Sounds like a bunch of hocus pocus.
Follow-up:
This same Goldstone, held that deep asteroid impacts fractured the Earth's crust allowing thie Geo-Petroleum to be pushed to the surface .
This calls for some kind of catastrophism ping, though Dr. Velikovsky thought BOTH the hydrocarbons and the craters had an extraterrestrial origin.
There's an infinite amount of nonsense (eagerly lapped up by the majority of FR, it seems) regarding abiogenic petroleum.
This particular article at least gets points for not claiming the standard theory of oil is that it comes from dinosaurs.
>>"Rock oil originates as tiny bodies of animals buried in the sediments which, under the influence of increased temperature and pressure acting during an unimaginably long period of time transform into rock oil" -- M.V. Lomonosov 1757AD.
Maybe it's time to change the textbooks.
<<
You mean '1857', don't you ? ? ? ?
I've read about more or less continuous "seeps" moving upward against caprock. Never had it discussed in association with meteors...
Considering how much of the earth has been affected by impacts it would impossible to prove this theory wrong. That is without (fill in the blanks) millions of dollars in research.
>>This calls for some kind of catastrophism ping, though Dr. Velikovsky thought BOTH the hydrocarbons and the craters had an extraterrestrial origin.<<
Dr. Velikovsky was the pariah of the scientific community !
Hell, Carl 'Spasmos' Sagan tried to have him academically lynched . .
It would be so refreshing.
L
Petroleum geologists usually are less concerned about where oil comes from and instead tend to be much more concerned about determining whether oil will be present when their companies spend a couple million dollars to drill a well where they think the oil is going to be.
More like "embarassing joke" rather than "pariah" and it's rather difficult to describe him as a scientist or part of the scientific community.
The abyssal, abiotic theory of oil production has been around for a long time. Pretty compelling.
They have an excellent idea where it comes from - dead microscopic plankton (much of it diatoms and algae) laid down in oceans and large lakes and later buried.
The chemical composition of such organisms exactly matches that of petroleum in many instances.
Thomas Gold. The article mentions him.
interesting theory here:
http://www.gsanctuary.com/3craters.html#fig3
Maybe we should get into the snake oi- I mean, abiogenic petroleum business. We'd have a crowd of ready-made suckers for our super cheap, super powerful oil.
btt
Oh geez, somebody else who gets his scientific education from WingNutDaily....
In many or in all instances? And if that's true why can't we just synthesize crude or farm it or something?
L
Really? Why?
What were you planning on using for an oxidizer?
Considering how much of the earth has been affected by impacts it would impossible to prove this theory wrong. That is without (fill in the blanks) millions of dollars in research.
___________________________
Or finding oil on the moon.
btt
Mikhailo Vasilevich Lomonosov 1711-1765
I'll pay for it COD.
I get the oil, then you get the cash.
L
It's being researched...
http://www.greenfuelonline.com/news/algaefuel.pdf#search=%22diatoms%20petroleum%22
Synthesizing the stuff would be loads cheaper than trying to import it from asteroids.
L
Well, considering the billions of tons of diatoms that have lived and died on the earth in the last couple hundred millions of years, it's still far cheaper to simply pump the petroleum resulting from them out of the ground.
Oil Czar and ally
Posted by JohnHuang2
On News/Activism 10/12/2001 1:42:24 AM EDT · 3 replies · 145+ views
TownHall.com | Friday, October 12, 2001 | Larry Kudlow
TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Larry KudlowQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comLarry Kudlow (back to story)October 12, 2001Oil Czar and ally Almost unnoticed in the wave of economic pessimism accompanying the war against terrorism is the precipitous plunge of oil prices. Since shortly after the Sept.11 bombing, oil has dropped about 25 percent from $30 a barrel to nearly $22. Gasoline prices at the pump have slipped $0.20 to $1.30. Just as negative oil shocks act on the economy like tax hikes, this (SET ITAL) tax-cut (END ITAL) like decline will surely boost ...
Scientist stirs the cauldron: oil, he says, is renewable
Posted by Aurelius
On News/Activism 11/19/2001 1:07:24 PM EST · 208 replies · 2,238+ views
Boston Globe | May 22, 2001 | David L. Chandler
SCIENTIST STIRS THE CAULDRON: OIL, HE SAYS, IS RENEWABLEDavid L. Chandler, Globe staff Date: May 22, 2001 Page: A14 Section: Health Science It's as basic as the terminology people use in discussing sources of energy: On the one hand, there are "fossil fuels," left over from the decayed remains of millions of years worth of vegetation and destined to run out before long; on the other hand, there are "renewable" resources that could sustain human activities indefinitely. But what if fossil fuels aren't fossils, but are actually renewable and virtually inexhaustible? To most people, that question may sound as ...
The world has more oil not less
Posted by ATOMIC_PUNK
On News/Activism 12/24/2001 2:55:44 PM EST · 36 replies · 1,466+ views
anxietycenter.com | By Alan Caruba
By Alan Caruba If you do an Internet search for "oil reserves", you get a ton of information, much of it announcements by various nations saying they have discovered vast potential new fields of crude oil and are, not surprisingly, eager to tap them. Then why are being told that we have to cut back consumption? The answer is political, not geological. The most casual look at the UN Kyoto Climate Control Treaty reveals the economic devastation that would occur if this and other industrialized nations were forced to cut back to 1990 levels of energy use. Economists warn ...
Supplies of oil may be inexhaustible
Posted by jimkress
On News/Activism 05/29/2002 11:18:56 AM EDT · 93 replies · 490+ views
Detroit News | 5/29/2002 | Bruce Bartlett
<p>On April 16, Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, published a startling report that old oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico were somehow being refilled. That is, new oil was being discovered in fields where it previously had not existed.</p>
Oil Without End?
Posted by CalConservative
On News/Activism 02/16/2003 12:47:02 AM EST · 24 replies · 1,056+ views
Fortune | 2/4/03 | Julie Creswell
BRAINSTORMOil Without End? Revisionists say oil isn't a fossil fuel. That could mean there's lots more of it. FORTUNE Tuesday, February 4, 2003 By Julie Creswell In the quiet waters off the coast of Vietnam lies an area known as Bach Ho, or White Tiger Field. There, and in the nearby Black Bear and Black Lion fields, exploration companies are drilling more than a mile into solid granite--so-called basement rock--for oil. That's a puzzle: Oil isn't supposed to be found in basement rock, which never rose near the surface of the earth where ancient plants grew and dinosaurs walked. Yet...
Anything into Oil(solution to dependence on foregn oil?)
Posted by honway
On News/Activism 04/21/2003 8:57:41 AM EDT · 142 replies · 7,435+ views
DISCOVER Vol. 24 No. 5 | May 2003 | Brad Lemley
In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine that can change almost anything into oil. Really. "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies, the company that built this pilot plant and has just completed its first industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global warming." Pardon me, says a reporter, shivering in the frigid dawn, but that sounds too good to be true. "Everybody says...
Abiotic Theory of Oil Formation
Posted by narses
On News/Activism 06/10/2004 12:15:38 AM EDT · 67 replies · 1,052+ views
The Environmental Literacy Council
There is an alternative theory about the formation of oil and gas deposits that could change estimates of potential future oil reserves. According to this theory, oil is not a fossil fuel at all, but was formed deep in the Earth's crust from inorganic materials. The theory was first proposed in the 1950s by Russian and Ukranian scientists. Based on the theory, successful exploratory drilling has been undertaken in the Caspian Sea region, Western Siberia, and the Dneiper-Donets Basin. The prevailing explanation for the formation of oil and gas deposits is that they are the remains of plant and animal...
About Coal: America's most abundant energy resource
Posted by xzins
On News/Activism 10/07/2004 4:05:50 AM EDT · 15 replies · 864+ views
Clean Energy
About Coal America's most abundant energy resource and a source of chemicals, fertilizer, and power worldwide. Bookmarks on this Page Introduction Domestic Resources Domestic Consumption World Resources World Consumption Introduction Coal is the generic name for a solid hydrocarbon substance that has been burned as fuel for hundreds of years. Thanks to technological advances, coal can now be converted into a synthesis gas that can be used as a feedstock for the production of chemicals, fertilizer, and electric power. Webster defines coal as "a black or brownish black solid combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter...
Fossil Fuels Made without Fossils
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/29/2004 1:55:18 AM EDT · 18 replies · 1,018+ views
Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 9/13/2004 5:01 PM | Gabe Romain
The researchers squeezed materials common at the Earth's surface -- iron oxide, calcite and water -- to pressures ranging from 50,000 to 110,000 times the pressure at sea level. They then heated the samples to temperatures up to 1,500?C (2,700?F). They were able to get methane to form by reducing the carbon in calcite over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, supporting the possibility that the deep Earth may produce abiogenic hydrocarbons.
Hydrogen Production Method Could Bolster Fuel Supplies
Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 11/28/2004 1:23:36 AM EST · 85 replies · 2,094+ views
NY Times | November 28, 2004 | MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - Researchers at a government nuclear laboratory and a ceramics company in Salt Lake City say they have found a way to produce pure hydrogen with far less energy than other methods, raising the possibility of using nuclear power to indirectly wean the transportation system from its dependence on oil. The development would move the country closer to the Energy Department's goal of a "hydrogen economy," in which hydrogen would be created through a variety of means, and would be consumed by devices called fuel cells, to make electricity to run cars and for other purposes. Experts...
Methane on Mars: the plot thickens
Posted by LibWhacker
On News/Activism 08/02/2005 3:00:01 PM EDT · 29 replies · 776+ views
New Scientist | 8/02/05 | Maggie McKee
Methane on Mars may be produced at rates 3000 times higher than previously thought and partially destroyed by dust storms, controversial new research suggests. The work is sure to reignite the debate over a possible biological origin for the gas, but another team reports that subsurface volcanism alone - and not life - can account for the gas. Sunlight is thought to destroy methane molecules in Mars's atmosphere over about 300 years. So recent discoveries of the gas by space- and ground-based instruments suggested it is actively being replenished by geological processes or ñ possibly ñ living microbes. The mystery...
Shaped from clay [origin of life]
Posted by PatrickHenry
On News/Activism 11/04/2005 8:00:06 AM EST · 345 replies · 3,391+ views
Nature Magazine | 03 November 2005 | Philip Ball
Minerals help molecules thought to have been essential for early life to form. A team of US scientists may have found the 'primordial womb' in which the first life on Earth was incubated. Lynda Williams and colleagues at Arizona State University in Tempe have discovered that certain types of clay mineral convert simple carbon-based molecules to complex ones in conditions mimicking those of hot, wet hydrothermal vents (mini-volcanoes on the sea bed). Such complex molecules would have been essential components of the first cell-like systems on Earth. Having helped such delicate molecules to form, the clays can also protect them...
At 30,000 feet down, where were the dinosaurs?
Posted by ovrtaxt
On News/Activism 11/29/2005 6:26:34 AM EST · 72 replies · 3,025+ views
WorldNetDaily.com | November 29, 2005 | Jerome Corsi
At 30,000 feet down, where were the dinosaurs? Posted: November 29, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern ©†2005†WorldNetDaily.com Developments in deep-drilling for natural gas present serious challenges to those who still maintain "Fossil-Fuel" theories as to the origin of complex hydrocarbon fuels. The Western world's record for deep-well natural-gas exploration and production is held by the GHK Company in Oklahoma. From 1972 through 1974, the company engineered and drilled two Oklahoma natural-gas commercial wells at depths greater than 30,000 feet (approximately 5.7 miles) ñ the No. 1-27 Bertha Rogers well (total depth 31,441 feet) and the No. 1-28 E.R. Baden well, both located...
'Fossil fuel' theory takes hit with NASA finding
Posted by seastay
On News/Activism 12/02/2005 10:00:55 PM EST · 150 replies · 3,412+ views
worldnetdaily | December 1, 2005
New study shows methane on Saturn's moon Titan not biological NASA scientists are about to publish conclusive studies showing abundant methane of a non-biologic nature is found on Saturn's giant moon Titan, a finding that validates a new book's contention that oil is not a fossil fuel. "We have determined that Titan's methane is not of biologic origin," reports Hasso Niemann of the Goddard Space Flight Center, a principal NASA investigator responsible for the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer aboard the Cassini-Huygens probe that landed on Titan Jan. 14. Niemann concludes the methane "must be replenished by geologic processes on Titan,...
UC Riverside Researchers Identify Clay as Major Contributor to Oxygen that Enabled Early Animal Life
Posted by PatrickHenry
On News/Activism 02/03/2006 6:49:20 AM EST · 35 replies · 685+ views
University of California, Riverside | February 2, 2006 | Iqbal Pittalwala
Study suggests steps a planet must go through for complex animal life to arise. Clay made animal life possible on Earth, a UC Riverside-led study finds. A sudden increase in oxygen in the Earthís recent geological history, widely considered necessary for the expansion of animal life, occurred just as the rate of clay formation on the Earthís surface also increased, the researchers report. ìOur study shows for the first time that the initial soils covering the terrestrial surface of Earth increased the production of clay minerals and provided the critical geochemical processes necessary to oxygenate the atmosphere and support multicellular...
Oil Is Well: The Shortage Is A Myth, And Not A New One
Posted by rdmartinjd
On News/Activism 06/04/2006 10:59:38 AM EDT · 42 replies · 1,233+ views
TheVanguard.Org | 2 June 2006 | Rod D. Martin
"America has no shortage of oil... Washington, DC has a shortage of the political will required to let American workers go get it." -- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) With oil prices reaching record levels, the left is up to its old tricks, blaming the President and calling for lots of expensive big government ìsolutionsî. As part of this push, they argue that we're running out of oil. But clearly, this argument is not new -- and it's dead wrong. In 1874, Pennsylvania's state geologist fretted that America had only a four-year supply of oil left. He was wrong. In 1914,...
Marine Methane Heats Things Up
Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 09/02/2006 12:17:01 AM EDT · 24 replies · 516+ views
ScienceNOW Daily News | 28 August 2006 | Julie Rehmeyer
Oil seeping from the seafloor may have contributed to climate change long before the internal combustion engine did. The petroleum deposits are rich in the powerful greenhouse gas methane, which, according to a new study, may have played a major role in two previous episodes of global warming. Bedrock below the ocean bottom keeps a lid on oil reservoirs, but it's not an impermeable cap. Small cracks allow petroleum and methane to bubble to the surface. Once there, the petroleum oxidizes and turns to tar, which sinks. Meanwhile, the methane drifts into the atmosphere, where it makes up about 15%...
Peak oil theorists don't know Jack ( It Could Increase U.S. Reserves by 50% )
Posted by demlosers
On News/Activism 09/06/2006 1:03:24 AM EDT · 93 replies · 1,956+ views
Globe and Mail | 5 September 2006 | PATRICK BRETHOUR
The elephants aren't extinct yet. Chevron Corp. and its partners say they have tapped into an area that may contain as much as 15 billion barrels of oil in the ultradeep waters of the Gulf of Mexico -- the kind of massive reservoir of crude that the industry dubs an elephant discovery. The days of such discoveries were supposedly gone, with oil supplies peaking as the world simply ran out of big oil-producing fields, according to pessimistic forecasters. Instead, high technology and sky-high oil prices have combined to transform dud prospects into billions of barrels of crude. ìThe industry is...
Earth's Hidden Oil ReservesHenry Scott of Indiana University South Bend... who had read Gold’s 1998 book The Deep Hot Biosphere... simulated the conditions within the mantle using a diamond anvil apparatus. He took two diamonds with flattened tips; heated them up; stuck some iron (II) oxide, calcite and water between them; and pushed the diamonds together. The setup generated temperatures up to 1,500°C and 100,000 times the pressure found at sea level. These conditions forced the carbon in the calcite to react with the hydrogen in the water, forming methane. All of which indicates that simple hydrocarbons -- but not necessarily their heavier counterparts, oil and natural gas -- could exist deep within the earth. In his next experiment, Scott plans to move up to the heavier stuff. But even if he does find that there could be oil reserves in the mantle, don’t expect the price at the pump to drop. At the 62-to-186-mile depth that Gold suggested, even the most ambitious oilman wouldn’t get to it anytime soon.
by Gregory Mone
And if you step too close to the edge you'll fall off....
bump
'Cause the craters are easy to find.
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2005research_calgary/abstracts/extended/mello/mello.htm
Petroleum: To Be Or Not To Be Abiogenic
M. R. Mello1 and J.M. Moldowan1
1 High Resolution Technology & Petroleum. Av. Atlantica 1130, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, 22021-000, E-mail: marcio@hrt.com.br
2 Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2115 USA, and BIOMARKER TECHNOLOGY, 2501 Blucher Valley Road, Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA
Petroleum scientists have always searched for new trustful technologies to provide valuable evidences regarding the origin of hydrocarbons found in sedimentary basins and metamorphic areas around the globe. Present-day analysis of petroleum systems, when performed integrated with direct geochemistry, remote sense and high resolution geochemistry technology (HRGT), can provide irrefutable proof that 99.99999% of all the oil and gas accumulations found up to know in the planet earth have a biologic origin. The technologies can be so accurate and useful that they can predict pre-drilling insights regarding the quality and potential volumes of hydrocarbons to be found, including deep gas reservoirs, oil versus gas prone areas, degree of oil and gas cracking and of mixture of hydrocarbons derived from different sources, from different petroleum systems.
The recent application of those technologies, which consists of a complete characterization of the oil, gas and source rocks using Satellite images, piston core analysis, GC-MS, GC-MS-MS, Diamondoids, CSI-B and CSI-D methods, integrated with detailed geological and geophysical characterization, provide trustful and accurate approaches that allows the explorationists to play under a scenario of biological origin to obtain useful pre-drilling predictions in order to find oil and gas fields. The idea can be old but the practical use of this method is recent and represents an exploration breakthrough in petroleum technology.
The application of this new petroleum technology in petroliferous basins all around the world shows that oils can be attributed to organic-rich sedimentary rocks of specific geological age and depositional environments.
DISCUSSION
The abiogenic origin of petroleum thrived over a period in which scientific knowledge in biology, geology, and chemistry was in the dark ages. Mendeleyev, Kudryavtsev and Porfirev's abiotic evidences was well accepted at the beginning and in the mid-20th century because it offered an explanation for the presence of petroleum deposits in metamorphic rocks of the basement.
With the advances of analytical chemistry, around the fifties, geochemical evidence start to suggest, and latter proved that oils are related to biological precursors (Forsman and Hunt, 1958; Eglinton and Calvin, 1967 and Tissot, 1969). In the late seventies Albrecht, Seifert, Moldowan and Maxwell performed numbered studies that definitively proved the relationship between hydrocarbons and their putative biological precursor, burying the abiogenic hypothesis forever. Unfortunately, Thomas Gold convinced the Swedish Government and some neophyte people, in the nineties, that oil could be found everywhere in the planet, but more specific in an ancient meteorite crater, into fractured granite under the Siljan Ring, in Sweden. For this, two deep wells were drilled and millions of dollars were thrown in the deep earth granite (Gravberg-1 in 1986-1990 and Stenberg-1 in 1991-1992). In such adventure, no hydrocarbon was found and again the abiogenic hypothesis was put in its proper place (Kerr, 1990).
Today, the biogenic theory, which recognizes that all petroleum found in our planet is derived from biological precursors, is well proved and supported by laboratory experiments, in which petroleum composition is shown to reflect that of oil generated from kerogen by pyrolysis.
The application of high resolution biomarker technologies using GC-MS, GC-MS-MS, Diamondoids, CSIA-B and CSIA-D methods, integrated with detailed geological and paleontology cal characterization, provide scientific evidence that that oils can be attributed to organic-rich sedimentary rocks of specific geological age and depositional environments.
Oil samples related to sedimentary rocks of a certain depositional environment and geologic age show biomarkers derived from organisms that are known to have derived from biological precursor that evolved by that time (Figs 1 and 2). For example, oils that can be related to late Cretaceous and Tertiary source rocks generally show Oleanane, which derives from triterpane precursors in angiosperms that evolved and radiated in the Cretaceous and Tertiary, and/or they show the highly branched isoprenoid, which is synthesized by diatoms that evolved and radiated in about the same geologic time-span. Clear examples from major oil-producing basins are Venezuela, Nigeria and California (USA).
Tetracyclic terpanes, such as kaurane, beyerane and phyllocladane occur only in rocks and oils younger than the age of evolution of land plants, i.e., Silurian, because these are biogenic diterpenoid structures that are associated exclusively with hormone (gibberellins) synthesis required by all land plants. Such terrestrially dominated oils that show such compounds can be found widely in China, Southeast Asia, Australia, and in Venezuela. Oil samples that can be tied to early Paleozoic rocks, Cambrian-Devonian often show a unique n-alkane distribution with high odd/even predominance, terminating at n-C19 (Fig.1). This is the biochemical signature that has become identified and attributed to an early Paleozoic alga Gloeocapsamorpha Prisca, and can be found in certain oil habitats in basins of the Central USA, Australia, and Russia. It is also interesting to note that oils derived from marine and lacustrine source rock environments without higher plant influence lack terrestrial plant terpanes and oils derived from terrestrially dominated source rocks lack algally-derived C27 and C30 steranes. Another case, in point, is the presence of â-carotane derived from pigments in halophyllic bacteria that thrive in hypersaline environments, such as the Lagoa Feia source and derived oils of Brazil.
Another irrefutable proof of the biogenic origin of petroleum is the character of diamondoids in all petroleum liquids. One might expect an ultrastable hydrocarbon “non-biomarker” in oil, such as a diamondoid, to have an abiogenic origin. But, alas, it is not the case and it is proven by carbon isotopic composition. Diamonds are invariably formed from abiogenic carbon and, without argument, are abiogenic. They show carbon isotope ratios around 0 to 5 per mil indicating little, if any isotopic fractionation during their formation. However, the structurally related diamondoids in oil show high levels of isotopic fractionation in the range of -20 to -30 per mil, the same as most true biomarkers, indicating diamondoid derivation from enzymatic ally-created lipids with subsequent structural rearrangement during the process of source rock maturation and oil generation.
Application of diamondoid technology in the petroleum basins of the Gulf of Mexico has led to a uniquely detailed understanding of the oil and gas generating systems. Quantitative and isotopic analysis of diamondoid compounds in Mexican oils provide a depth of knowledge of the of the oil and gas biogenic origins, tying them to source ages and ranging from Oxfordian to Miocene in time, and from marine hypersaline to deltaic depositional environments, in which high amounts of higher plants were responsibly for the organic matter (Fig. 2).
REFERENCES
K. E. Peters; C.M. Walters and J. M. Moldowan, 2005. The Biomarker Guide, 2nd Edition, parts 1 and 2, Cambridge University press, 1155p.
And...
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2005research_calgary/abstracts/extended/dow/dow.htm
The Petroleum System Paradigm and the Biogenic Origin of Oil and Gas
Wallace G. Dow
Consultant, The Woodlands, Texas
The distribution and compositional variations of oil and gas in sedimentary basins can only be explained by its origin in thermally mature, organic-rich source rocks and occasional post-accumulation alteration in the reservoir. This conclusion, based on a very old idea, was confirmed after many decades of research, analysis with modern laboratory instruments and methods and rigorous application of the scientific method. The input of abiogenic hydrocarbons to the oil and gas found in sedimentary basins, if any, is insignificant.
Oil and gas in sedimentary basins is not distributed evenly, but occurs in distinct geographic and stratigraphic trends. The problem at Amoco Research in 1970 was to learn why this is true and whether we could learn how to accurately extend current and predict future productive trends prior to drilling. The Williston Basin was one of the first areas to be studied in detail. We collected 184 oil samples from 107 fields and all of the productive reservoir rocks in the basin and analyzed them with the best analytical techniques available at the time. The oils fell into three major chemically distinct groups (Figure 1) and several minor groups. In an effort to understand where these compositionally different oils came from, we analyzed core samples from all of the organic-rich, non-reservoir rocks in the basin with the same techniques used to study the oils. Each oil group matched to and was closely associated with a different organic-rich interval. The three major oil-rock pairs are isolated from each other by thick salt deposits (Figure 2) and the oils were unmixed and unaltered except beyond the salt depositional edges where inter-group vertical migration was possible. These three major oil-rock pairs were termed “oil systems” and each oil system contained more than enough organic-rich rock volume to account for their related reservoired oils, even at very low generation/accumulation efficiencies. These observations let to the hypothesis that each major oil group was generated in and expelled from a different, chemically distinct, organic-rich source rock. The minor oil groups appeared to be related to limited source rocks in thin, localized, or less organic-rich intervals. There was absolutely no association with basement faulting and it seemed impossible for oil or gas migrating from deep sources to penetrate the regional salt seals. Oil originating in a single source, either biogenic or abiogenic, should exhibit a more uniform composition and not have the profound compositional differences and undeniable organic affinities of the three major Williston Basin oil types.
Corroborating evidence for this hypothesis was provided by further examining the three source rock intervals throughout the Williston Basin. Organic matter in the Bakken Shale, for example, changed systematically in composition between the shallow and deep portions of the basin and contained oil-like organic extracts only below about 5,000 feet near the basin depocenter. Here, the Bakken Shale is overpressured, under compacted and exhibited increased electrical resisitivity on wireline logs, all apparently due to internal oil generation. Cretaceous organic-rich shales were found to be the source of a different type of oil in nearby basins but are shallow and thermally immature in the Williston Basin and have neither generated oil nor are associated with any oil or gas accumulations. These observations led to an additional hypothesis that oil [and gas] source rocks must be subjected to burial heat and pressure in order to convert at least a portion of the organic matter they contain into expellable and oil and gas.
Additional corroborating evidence was obtained from hydrous pyrolysis experiments on immature organic-rich shales that have not yet generated oil or gas. Heating these shales in the laboratory under pressure and in the presence of water formed oil that has properties nearly identical to their naturally generated crude oil counterparts. More advanced analytical techniques such as gc/ms and gc/irms, developed since the initial work was done in 1970, have been used by many researchers to analyze Williston Basin oils and source rocks in considerably more detail, but this new data has changed none of the original conclusions. These techniques also provided additional detailed information on the types of organic matter in each parent source rock and their related oils and showed undeniable organic signatures. These data further corroborated the previous hypotheses and led to confirmation of the scientific theory that oil and gas are formed from thermally mature, organic-rich, sedimentary source rocks. This “biogenic theory” of oil and gas formation is the only theory consistent with all of the observations, analytical data, scientific facts, and experimental results relating to the natural process of oil and gas formation.
The presence of crude oil in fractured basement reservoirs such as those in the South Vietnam Cuu Long Basin is often cited as “proof” that these oils have an abiogenic origin. But detailed geochemical analysis with a host of modern analytical techniques on oils from both Miocene sandstone and fractured basement reservoirs show nearly identical characteristics and correlate well with solvent extracts from Cuu Long Basin Oligocene lacustrine shales. Furthermore, biomarkers in these oils are clearly related to fresh water algae, diatoms, and higher land plants (angiosperms) and it is difficult to imagine how such materials could have found their way into oils with an abiogenic origin. In the Cuu Long Basin, fractured and weathered granite and granodiorite reservoirs occur in up thrown fault blocks that are structurally higher than the immediately adjacent effective Oligocene lacustrine oil source rocks where they were generated. These observations demonstrate that the Cuu Long Basin Oligocene-Basement(!) Petroleum System is quite conventional and to invoke an abiogenic origin for these oils simply because they occur in basement reservoirs ignores abundant scientific evidence to the contrary.
This scientific method approach has been repeated in many sedimentary basins by many researchers, who always arrived at the same conclusions; pooled oil and gas in porous reservoirs can only be explained by it’s origin in thermally mature, organic-rich, sedimentary source rocks. This “biogenic theory” of oil and gas origin subsequently led to the “generative basin” concept and eventually to the “petroleum system” paradigm that is widely used with great success by the petroleum industry today. This paradigm integrates the data and ideas of geology, geophysics, petroleum engineering, mathematical modeling, and geochemistry into the conceptual framework within which most oil and gas exploration is carried out. No other scientific theory has taken the observations and experiments pertaining to the origin of oil and gas from the descriptive to the predictive stage and herein lays its value. Abiogenic hydrocarbons, primarily methane, are certainly present in some parts of the solar system, including planet Earth, but they have nothing whatever to do with the oil, gas, and coal that powers the world’s economy.
L
You got that right.
Where it came from is interesting, because it might tell you where to look next, but the focus is on where it might be now.
No doubt about it.
I've said for years that the world is awash with oil.
It would be sweet to spin the production of oil as "milk from Mother Gaia's breast", or some such heathen pagan liberal nonsense.
If it was only that easy :)
Thanks. Hopefully, your post will set some of the abiotic Freepers straight.
Innerestin'
Seismic data showing the crater and its concentric ring structure (Image credit:Phil Allen (PGL) and Simon Stewart (BP))
The crater was discovered during analysis of seismic data collected by petroleum geoscientists Simon Stewart of BP and Philip Allen of Production Geoscience Ltd, for a region 130 km off the Humber estuary, during a routine search for fossil fuel deposits. Allen noticed a set of concentric rings, but did not know what they were, and hung an image of them on the wall of his office, hoping someone else might be able to shed light on the mystery. Stewart, visiting Production Geoscience on an unrelated matter, saw the map and suggested it might be an impact crater. The discovery of the crater and the impact hypothesis were reported in the journal Nature in 2002 [1].
The crater currently lies below a layer of sediment up to 1,500 m in depth, which forms the bed of the North Sea at a depth of about 40 m. Studies suggest that at the time of the crater's formation, the area was under 50 to 300 m of water.
http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Silverpit_crater
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