Recharging of oil and gas fields. There have been numerous reports in recent times, of oil and gas fields not running out at the expected time, but instead showing a higher content of hydrocarbons after they had already produced more than the initially estimated amount. This has been seen in the Middle East, in the deep gas wells of Oklahoma, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in other places. It is this apparent refilling during production that has been responsible for the series of gross underestimate of reserves that have been published time and again, the most memorable being the one in the early seventies that firmly predicted the end of oil and gas globally by 1987, a prediction which produced an energy crisis and with that a huge shift in the wealth of nations. Refilling is an item of the greatest economic significance, and also a key to understanding what the sources of all this petroleum had been. It is also of practical engineering importance, since we may be able to exercise some control over the refilling process.
Born May 22, 1920(1920-05-22) Vienna, Austria Died June 22, 2004(2004-06-22) (aged 84) Ithaca, New York
Nationality Austrian Fields Astrophysics, astronomy, biophysics, cosmology, geophysics, aerospace engineering Institutions Cambridge University, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Harvard University, Cornell University Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge