Titan is practically made of methane. What does that mean?
I recall the discovery of hydrocarbon clouds in space via radioastronomy. One was a cloud of ethyl alcohol which ( from recollection ) had enough alcohol to form a ball the size of the earth in liquid form, yet if you dragged a football field sized scoop all the way through it, you would only collect a thimble full.
Exercise: calculate the diameter of the cloud, assuming uniform density.
P.S. It was stated that the cloud was laced with cyanide, to the disappointment of aspiring interstellar dipsomanics.
To me, it is just one more piece of evidence pointing to the possibility that the "abiogenic" petroleum theory of Thomas Gold may be valid.
One thing's for sure. The human race could have non-petroleum based energy based on nuclear -- or thermonuclear -- sources very quickly if the will to develop those sources was there. The "will" is not there because the price of oil is too low, and the price of oil is so low because there's so damn much of it, and the smart money knows it.
Development of an alternative energy source -- such as the low-energy nuclear fusion technologies that are steadily gaining acceptance from the mainstream scientific community -- would knock the price of petroleum for a loop. Energy prices are being held up by political forces, in my opinion, and this is becoming more and more clear.
We have evidence in case after case, both in our own solar system and elsewhere in the galaxy, that hydrocarbons collect on all kinds of planets and planetoids. Good grief, Jupiter and Saturn are mega-balls of hydrocarbons (with other elements such as nitrogen present also, of course).
The idea that only decaying dinosaurs, or diatoms, or algae, could have been the source of all the underground hydrocarbons on Earth strikes me as far-fetched.
I'm not a petroleum engineer, but I am an engineer, and I know what makes sense and what doesn't.
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P.S. It was stated that the cloud was laced with cyanide, to the disappointment of aspiring interstellar dipsomanics.
Amaretto drinkers demur.