Oil exists beneath the surface of the earth under pressure that causes it to seep to the surface by any available route. When a well is drilled into a pocket of contained oil the pressure forces it to gush out and over the wellhead. The pressure in the pool of drilled oil gradually falls, and the seep ceases. In this way, oil drilling actually has stopped numerous spills of oil onto the surface where it fouled land and water for eons.
Hey, it’s non-GMO and gluten-free too!
Organic? likely.
Liberals want to ban oil - oil is black - need I point out how racist that is?
There is no such a thing as a fossil fuel.
It all occurs naturally.
The older the wiser. Do you know why West Coast beaches are usable? Because offshore drilling released the pressure and ended the natural seepage that would spoil the shoreline. Before drilling you could expect to have a smelly and nasty day at the beaches of California. Inconvenient facts are always memory-holed.
Yep. Hydrocarbons are everywhere on the surface of the earth.
One caveat though; large spills like exxon valdez or the deepwater horizon concentrate the crude to a localized environment and it’s not debatable that it’s detrimental to local ecology for a period of time
More oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico from the sea bottom that was ever spilled, including the 2010 disaster.....................
great point
the real concern, seems to me, would be a blow out in an urban well....but that’s because an urban environment is not a natural one..
didn’t deepwater horizon clean itself up in just a few months?
This is true. There are spots in my area where oil naturally seeps to the surface. They are not located near any wells or pipelines. I had a spot on my property that seeped for many years. I used to joke about the old “Beverly Hillbillies” series opener where Uncle Jed shoots his rile at something, and the bullet hits the ground and “bubbling crude” starts seeping out of the ground. I have no doubt that could happen.
You get oil out of the ground, the dirt we all walk on everyday. Why is it a friggen disaster when you spill some on the ground?
I grew up in Manhattan Beach in the early 60’s. At the time all SoCal beaches were full of Tar and it was everywhere. You couldn’t walk in the sand without getting it all over you. Beachfront property wasn’t worth much because of it. Then they put all those drilling rigs offshore and the problem of seepage pretty much disappeared and the beaches were cleaned up in just a few short years.
Seepage is.......
Oil is an organic liquid that is metabolized by bacteria.
Spill oil and 10-20 years later it is gone.
Bury carbon fiber wind turbine blades and 500 years later they are still there.
This has been understood for a long, long time...
And I recall that asphalt was originally slang for rectal problems and hemorrhoids.