Laser drilling may be the answer as it can be done for a fraction of the cost of conventional drilling.
I don't know if there is anything to Gold's theory, either. But I sure as heck want to find out. If true, it would put those corrupt, murderous Bedouin creeps in the Middle East out of business real fast, and they'd soon find themselves riding around on camels again, living their traditional nomadic life.
They never stopped ;)
There was a Russian scientist pushing this theory back then. Everyone dismissed him then as a nut case and many so-called experts looked at consumption vs reserves and concluded that we would run out of oil before the year 2000. Consumption has increased dramatically since 1970 and so have more proven reserves than we had then because we are now drilling into very deep reserves where conventional geology says their should be no 'fossil fuels'.
There is obviously something not right with conventional theory.