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To: 2ndDivisionVet
From another source:

http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/peak_oil/is_peak_oil_a_myth.htm

Finally, a word of caution on the essential fragility of a study on the very long-term future for the world's energy supply which accepts without question the validity of the original 18th century hypothesis that all oil and gas resources have been generated from biological matter in the chemical and thermodynamic environments of the earth's crust. There is an alternative theory - already 50 years old - which suggests an inorganic origin for additional oil and gas. This alternative view is widely accepted in the countries of the former Soviet Union where, it is claimed, "large volumes of hydrocarbons are being produced from the pre-Cambrian crystalline basement".

Recent applications of the inorganic theory have, however, also led to claims for the possibility of the Middle East fields being able to produce oil "forever" and to the concept of repleting oil and gas fields in the gulf of Mexico. More generally, it is argued, "all giant fields are most logically explained by inorganic theory because simple calculations of potential hydrocarbon contents in sediments shows that organic materials are too few to supply the volumes of petroleum involved."

4 posted on 12/05/2006 1:21:13 AM PST by beyond the sea ( All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.)
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To: beyond the sea
This alternative view is widely accepted in the countries of the former Soviet Union where, it is claimed, "large volumes of hydrocarbons are being produced from the pre-Cambrian crystalline basement".

Did the proponents allow for those crystalline rocks being thrust faulted over sediments below?

A few words of caution.

The reason many in the oil industry believe that there is indeed a biogenic origin of oil is that the model works, repeatedly.

The only Gulf of Mexico wells which seem to be regenerating are in heavily faulted terrain and may well be being recharged by an un-drilled reservoir below the one originally tapped in the field by petroleum migration along a fault (or several faults).

I know of no instance where anything was produced (save the money from the investors) in the US by following a mantle generation model. The only producing fields are those which have reservoirs charged by proven source rocks which contain fossil plankton and other invertebrates, (not just dinosaurs), the main fossil source for the oil.

10 posted on 12/05/2006 1:53:10 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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