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Supplies of oil may be inexhaustible
Detroit News ^ | 5/29/2002 | Bruce Bartlett

Posted on 05/29/2002 8:18:56 AM PDT by jimkress

Edited on 05/25/2004 3:03:02 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

On April 16, Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, published a startling report that old oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico were somehow being refilled. That is, new oil was being discovered in fields where it previously had not existed.


(Excerpt) Read more at detroitnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abiogenic; energy; oil; thomasgold
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To: ppaul
I drive a GMC YUKON and I LOVE IT!!!
41 posted on 05/29/2002 9:09:05 AM PDT by bandleader
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To: WilliamWallace1999
The guys theory is full of holes.

Yes, but there are lots of theories that have holes, and we buy into them anyway. For example here's something I've wondered about:

If oil is created by a process that starts with a biomass and takes millions of years to become oil, why isn't it still happening? If it is indeed a process shouldn't there be also be deposits that are only 20%, 50%, or 80% finished in the process? These "in process" deposits would also presumably be found at shallower (younger) depths. They should be everywhere. Sure, there are subtle differences between the "flavors" of different oil fields but all the oil we have ever found is for the most part all the same, and the chemistry therein is not hugely different between the shallow stuff and the deep stuff.

That seems to me to be an interesting argument that oil is more likely mineral than vegetable. Don't get thrown by "organic" compounds. Just because living things produce a compound doesn't mean that's the only way the compound can happen.

42 posted on 05/29/2002 9:10:21 AM PDT by Ramius
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To: RetiredArmy
Boy, this is totally bound to P.O. the enviro wackos.

Not really.

The enviro-loonies have been doing the bait and switch ever since they started Earth Day. Back then, it was the population bomb. After that, it was pollution. After that, it was energy sources. Species extinction. Rainforest cutting. Now, its global warming.

Its the standard Chicken-Little mantra of 'the sky is falling', only the sky is always changing. Of course, the lawyers and executives that make up Environment, Inc. are the ones getting rich.

43 posted on 05/29/2002 9:11:22 AM PDT by Frohickey
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Tell you what, Grampa Dave... I won't stop there, once I discover the self-filling gas tank, I'll start work on the self-filling beer keg.

Please keep me posted you that I can get in on the IPO.

More seriouser, in addition to the oil aspect this article is a wonderful description of the dynamics of a free market.

44 posted on 05/29/2002 9:24:51 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: jimkress
Oil might last for another 250 years or "forever", but it seems inevitable that it will become more and more expensive to extract.

The pace of nuclear fusion research should be stepped up. While costly now, it will pay large dividends in the future.

45 posted on 05/29/2002 9:29:57 AM PDT by tictoc
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To: Squantos
Man, I wish I could still get 16MPG out of my TLC. Hovering around 12 now :(.
46 posted on 05/29/2002 9:30:56 AM PDT by cruiserman
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To: Ramius
If oil is created by a process that starts with a biomass and takes millions of years to become oil, why isn't it still happening?....

To add to the quandry consider that much oil and gas is found at 15,000 feet and deeper while some dinasaur bones are found on the surface. Was the 15,000+ level once the surface? Why are most ancient archological sites called digs? Of course, because they are underground. Why? Dust? Floods? These sites are only thousands of years old, not millions. Were the plates of the earths crust still in turmoil during the time that the 15,000' level was the surface and have they since settled except for the occassional earthquake and vocanic eruption? Lots of questions but I am sure someone has answered them with a theory at some time.

47 posted on 05/29/2002 9:37:41 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: cruiserman
series 80 ?
48 posted on 05/29/2002 9:40:10 AM PDT by Squantos
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To: Darth Sidious
>There was a post here a month or so ago about "hydrogen-eating" bacteria being found far underground. It's been speculated that petroleum may be the by-product of these bacteria... making it literally limitless.

Do they know for a fact that natural gas and oil was made by decaying dinosaurs? I heard of someone digging up a pertified tree which was thought to be 2 million years old. It was found only at a depth of 300 feet. How did the dead dinos get to the depth that they are drilling for oil at? Is that even geologically reasonable?

49 posted on 05/29/2002 9:41:52 AM PDT by Dialup Llama
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To: Darth Sidious
A more likely, and controversial, theory is that all types of hydrocarbons are commonplace throughout the universe and that the crust and mantle of the earth is filled with the stuff. As it is extracted, a replacement supply wells up from deep below.

All the past calculations of when the oil would "run out" that I've ever heard of are based on the idea that hydrocarbons are leftover from decaying plant and animal matter, literally the buried forests and remains of animals from the Cambrian through the Cretaceous eras. In other words, if hydrocarbons do not originate from animal and plant life but are part of the structure of the planet, the amount available is way beyond what humans could possibly consume and is for all intents and purposes inexhaustible.

Oddly enough, astronomical observations in the last ten years have confirmed that hydrocarbons are common on other planets, none of which as far as we know have ever held life, so there seems to be ample scientific evidence to support the idea that the same is true on Earth.

Real disappointing news to the luddites and tree hugging Chicken Little's of this world.

50 posted on 05/29/2002 9:55:30 AM PDT by katana
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To: Tauzero
Hi TZ. I had seen this report and having once been employed in the petroleum industry, I'm sure such findings are confounding my former coworkers. Conventional wisdom has confined exploration to specific geological formations - sedimentary basins and the like, but that may bein need of reexamination . I'm listening for the sounds of a paradigm shift.
51 posted on 05/29/2002 9:56:44 AM PDT by Dukie
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To: Alberta's Child
I heard a figure last week that indicated the U.S. only imports about 15% of its oil from Saudi Arabia anyway.

Yes, I've heard it somewhere in that ballpark figure, and about that amount from Iraq, if I remember correctly. I'd love to see those rulers in both countries tell their starving masses to "eat the oil" as Condi Rice put it!

52 posted on 05/29/2002 9:57:48 AM PDT by texasbluebell
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To: Ramius
If oil is created by a process that starts with a biomass and takes millions of years to become oil, why isn't it still happening?

I've wondered the same thing myself for years! Before I was slightly more savvy though, I couldn't figure out why we were running out of oil. Now I know it's probably been a scare tactic of certain factions.

53 posted on 05/29/2002 10:00:38 AM PDT by texasbluebell
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To: maestro
Supplies of oil may be inexhaustible
REALLY???????.....
............Ask the small, "mom & pop" INDEPENDENT dealership 'owners', of the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's,...NO 90's!!!!!!!!

Just because the local Koffee Kup closed after Starbucks moved in to town does not mean that we have a finite amount of coffee.

One has nothing to do with the other.

a.cricket

54 posted on 05/29/2002 10:19:57 AM PDT by another cricket
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To: another cricket
Your#...54)..........'One has nothing to do with the other.'.................Sure,....../sarcasm!

Follow the ('nothing?')...MONEY!!......

(use "ENRON" as a model!)

m

55 posted on 05/29/2002 10:35:48 AM PDT by maestro
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To: sphinx
I have noticed that rocks spontaneously regenerate in my yard, so why not oil?

The is so much more to nature than we think.
For instance, did you know that paper clips
are the larval form of coat hangers?

56 posted on 05/29/2002 10:39:39 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: snag_matic
I think there are fault lines that prevent that. However taking their oil is effectively paying a tax to them. The pipeline lays at the State Department and the DNC.
57 posted on 05/29/2002 10:42:25 AM PDT by lavaroise
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To: lavaroise
Wow!!....Your#...57).....

'I think there are fault lines that prevent that. However taking their oil is effectively paying a tax to them. The pipeline lays at the State Department and the DNC.'

BTTT

58 posted on 05/29/2002 10:50:18 AM PDT by maestro
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To: Tauzero;Dukie
Thanks for the ping even though I've already read this. Rush is discussing this article right now...

(I also caught your interesting comments about this interesting theory, Duke.).

59 posted on 05/29/2002 10:55:17 AM PDT by rohry
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To: semper_libertas
I believe D.S. was referring to the oil producing bacteria, "a. Rabian stikkinus".
60 posted on 05/29/2002 11:25:48 AM PDT by azhenfud
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