Posted on 11/06/2015 4:46:41 AM PST by expat_panama
Ever since M. King Hubbert in the 1950s convinced a lot of people with his "peak oil" theory that production would collapse and we'd eventually exhaust our crude supplies, the clock has been running. And running. And it will continue to run for some time, as technology and new discoveries show that there's still an ocean of oil under our feet.
[snip]
A BP official told the magazine that "energy resources are plentiful. Concerns over running out of oil and gas have disappeared."
Things are so good, in fact, that Engineering and Technology says "with the use of the innovative technologies, available fossil fuel resources could increase from the current 2.9 trillion barrels of oil equivalent to 4.8 trillion by 2050, which is almost twice as much as the projected global demand." That number could even reach 7.5 trillion barrels if technology and exploration techniques advance even faster.
This information backs up the idea that Earth is actually an oil-producing machine. We call energy sources such as crude oil and natural gas fossil fuels based on the assumption that they are the products of decaying organisms, maybe even dinosaurs themselves. But the label is a misnomer. Research from the last decade found that hydrocarbons are synthesized abiotically.
In other words, as Science magazine has reported...
[snip]
But for now, enjoy our cheap, abundant and efficient "fossil" fuels.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
All they have to do is show me one barrel of Abiotic oil and I’ll possibly change my mind. Until then I’ll just keep drilling and producing the way me and everybody else always have
I too believe the ultimate source is sedimentary, not igneous.
Just wanted to alert you to not be surprised that a lot of oil exists and is produced solely in granite formations.
Yep (and tell me where they got it...).
I an an engineer but have worked a lot around geologists and I now appreciate the wondrous world of geologic time which is something to behold.
LOL!
thackney,
I theorize that the hydrocarbon chains are built one link at a time. The assumption is that we start with the production of lighter hydrocarbon chains.
However, as the process continues, the chain length would keep growing. Perhaps at some point when the chain length were to get appreciably long (think waxy), it would not flow as easily. But even then, it would float on water.
In order to make oil sink in water, you would have to increase its density until it were more dense than water. That is very difficult to do with liquids because you can’t compress liquids easily.
What you can do is mix the oil with something else. A solution (two or more things mixed together) of oil plus another ingredient would increase the density of the oil. This is the same reason that salt water is heavier than fresh water - the weight of the salt is added to that of the water, making it more dense.
Combining oil with another ingredient would be the only real way to make it more dense than water.
Do you have any insight into the chemical composition of the oil in the oil/bitumen fields that would cause such a thing?
“DEEP HOT BIOSPHERE” ping
KYPD
“Sustainability” is a myth.
God made the earth abundantly and inexhaustibly rich and wealthy for man’s use and blessing to last way beyond our time horizon. We haven’t even begun to tap into earth’s vast resources.
Reality check: man’s efforts to find oil and natural gas is about 100 years old in an earth that is millions of years old and could contain earth’s entire population in the state of Texas. Duh!
“Sustainability” is an argument not based on truth but preys on fear and guilt and used to promote sweeping government intervention into everyone’s private lives.
But no matter. The truth never stopped the Left.
Those who want global totalitarianism will argue (and currently argue) that “we can no longer afford freedom becasue our limited food and natural resources cannot be ‘sustained’ with government intervention.” It is an argument against individual freedom and happiness and for government oppression and misery.
The “sustainability” myth is being taught now as entire courses in college and it is the main justification for the U.N.’s current “Agenda 21” (for “21st Century”) which proposes sweeping governmental powers and changes in how we live. This all softens up the world for coming world dictatorships. Soon, “but not yet.” We have a few decades to go before it all comes down, IMO.
Heat and Pressure break down long chain hydrocarbons into smaller ones, not the opposite. We do that every day in refineries. Entropy is not reverse because it is underground.
In order to make oil sink in water, you would have to increase its density until it were more dense than water. That is very difficult to do with liquids because you can't compress liquids easily.
It is not heavier due to compression. It is heavier due to the molecular weight of long chain hydrocarbons.
Combining oil with another ingredient would be the only real way to make it more dense than water.
Oil is not a single molecular structure. It is dozens and sometimes hundreds of different molecules. It is not simply the same string made longer, but completely different structures such as the before mentioned asphaltenes, paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics.
The dino theory always sounded like liberal fantasy to me. Oil is very similar to diamonds, and I always expected hydrocarbons were produced deep in the Earth.
I didn’t know diamonds contained microfossils of plankton and the like. Crude oil does.
Is that how it has to work, and with that timing?
Much of all soil does, but that doesn’t mean oil is a product by organics.
Basic science, logic and reasoning, simply are not taught anymore, are they?
I was making a joke. :-D
How does the aboitic theory of crude oil line up with layers of crude oil in sedimentary rock sealed by cap rock layers and drastically different qualities of oil in each layer?
Let us also use some more basic science.
Heat and Pressure break down the large complex hydrocarbon molecules in crude oil into more smaller, lighter hydrocarbons more typically used for transportation fuels. We do it every day in refineries.
Just the opposite of diamond formation from carbon.
That whole 'rotting vegetation' thing never made sense - kind of like the 'comets are ice' thing... ice wouldn't last for hundreds of years... or even one cycle around the Sun...
Open your eyes folks...
Debunking 'peak oil' gives hope someday 'global warming' will be totally debunked too...
No a geologist here, but in the oil business (mostly down stream and gathering) and do have a geo-physicist in the family.
Since non-sedimentary layers are mostly impervious; basalt, granite, marble, etc. and sedimentary are porous; would not oil vapors coming up from the core settle in the pervious layers? All sedimentary layers formed since life on earth started would have micro fossils.
Could the oil simply be picking up the micro fossils from the sedimentary layers it resides in?
As the crock slow cooks what gravity has pulled down in it, the oil is released and rises to the top, just like it does with my beef stew.
This explains the tar sands and tar pits, oil seeping into the ocean constantly all over the world from cracks in the ocean floor, and who can forget good ol' Uncle Jed shootin' at some food and up through the ground came a bubblin' crude?
There you go. Crock pot Gaia in action 24/7.
We are not running out of oil. We have run out of beer nuts and sanity.
Which past experience tells me is a crisis that won't be wasted nor be as wasted as those who believe we are running out of oil.
As you understand the basement (granite) rock to be impervious, how do imagine vapors are passing through it?
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