Oil is NOT a finite resource, and do you know why? We can MAKE kerogen, a form of crude oil, synthetically, from biomass and other organic waste, by a process called Thermal depolymerization, which is a process using superheated steam for the reduction of complex organic materials (usually waste products of various sorts, often known as biomass and plastic) into light crude oil. It mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. Under pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons with a maximum length of around 18 carbons.
The process is simple enough - place a wet slurry of finely divided organic material in a sealed retort, heat up to anywhere from 600 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, maintain pressure (from the superheated steam) of about two to five times normal atmospheric pressure, and after about two or three hours, the product kerogen plus somewhat saline water is ready to be sent through a condensation tower. The water separates out naturally enough, the fractions come off the kerogen as heavier Diesel fuel, kerosene, gasoline, and the lighter fractions, “LPG” (butane, propane and ethane) as the condensation is completed.
And the source of this organic material? Waste wood from sawmills, recycled lumber from housing demolitions or other construction reclamation, cull wood from forests that are pruned out of their deadwood, old newspapers, discarded mattresses, old tires, throwaway plastic bottles, slaughterhouse waste, semi-solid sewage slurry, lawn clippings, in fact, almost all the organic waste that is now being dumped in landfills or processed through sewage systems, including disposable baby diapers and used condoms. Think of it, two problems solved with a single method - increasing the amount of carbon-based fuel and reducing the solid-waste stream.
The earth itself is continuously forming more petroleum through abiotic processes, perhaps even faster than humanity could ever use it all up, as depths that border on the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, the layer between the earth’s crust and the molten interior. Vast heat, vast pressures there turn carbonate substances in the presence of water molecules into hydrocarbons, the excess oxygen taken up by silicon to form silicates. Within the structures of the earth’s crust, the supercritical volatiles seek to rise upward until they find an impervious dome to collect beneath, creating a new pool of petroleum.
Crude oil is for the most part, not even dinosaur soup at all.
And what energy source will you use to heat this slurry and how much energy will it require?