Article

2009-09-14 Economy

More claims of non-biological source for oil

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Posted by 2009-09-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 Very good news, anything hat break the Arab's stranglehold is to be applauded.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-09-14 00:29|| 2009-09-14 00:29|| Front Page Top

#2 So the question is: where did the carbon and hydrogen come from to make the oil at these great depths?

Posted by Alaska Paul 2009-09-14 01:37|| 2009-09-14 01:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Methinks Vlad, Anton & Alex just finished up their dissertations and are shopping for a free ride on someone else's dime for a few years. PT Barnum would be proud but any first year student of petroleum engineering and/or geology would roll their eyes at the loud trumpeting of a well-known fact and the simultaneous attempt to draw a very invalid conclusion therefrom.

It's not news that hydrocarbons form at depth. Nor is it news that a particular hydrocarbon, the simplest stable one, methane (CH4), a primarly component of natural gas, can form without the involvement of any organic material (see e.g., the first couple of chapters of Dr. Norman Hyne's excellent Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production for an imminently readable discussion). There are numerous sources of methane: garbage dumps, a cow's ass (just attach a hose), long buried organic material exposed to high temperature & pressure and yes, even Precambrian basement rocks lacking significant amounts of organic matter. This is long-known and not in dispute.

However the ability to form methane does not at all imply that other hydrocarbons will form spontaneously at great depth as well. There's not yet any significant evidence that hydrocarbons heavier than methane can form spontaneously in the absence of organic matter, but there's a great deal of evidence to the contrary. E.g.: while methane is often found in non-sedimentary rocks oil almost never is; methane is found alone or along with helium, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases thought or known to be formed in the basement rock while parafins heavier than methane are only found with or very neary oil; oil is known to form only at temperatures below about 300°F (higher temperatures produce lighter hydrocarbons) which limits the depth at which it can form to 18,000 to 20,000 feet or thereabouts, etc.

I don't imagine that the oil majors are going to be snapping these guys up any time soon though I'm sure there're a few gullible politicians in oil-poor countries who'll gladly write them a check.

Posted by AzCat 2009-09-14 02:10|| 2009-09-14 02:10|| Front Page Top

#4 before the barbarians bring down civilization

It's the barbs' facillitators inside civilization that I worry about.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-09-14 02:31|| 2009-09-14 02:31|| Front Page Top

#5 I can remember the crude oil scares of the 50's and 60's, "it's soon to run out, we've not much left anywhere" they would say. My late father who had worked for a subsidiary which is now BP for decades dismissed it all saying, "geologists are not even certain oil isn't still being made by this old earth." He would appreciate reading this article and the Burg I'm sure.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-09-14 08:09|| 2009-09-14 08:09|| Front Page Top

#6 As far as small reactors go, several corporations are in full scale production, and back ordered as far as the eye can see. Toshiba (20'x6'), Babcock & Wilcox, Western Troy Capital Resources, Hyperion Power Generation, Energy Northwest, NuScale Power, and several new Sandia labs designs, are all contending.

Right now, they are scaling off $5,000 per Megawatt, which is very competitive, and a lot of corporations and municipalities want their own reactor in case there is a severe economic downturn or a major energy crunch.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-09-14 10:10|| 2009-09-14 10:10|| Front Page Top

#7 Alaska Paul, hydrogen and carbon, as well as, all other occurring elements are present. The question is, are the hydrocarbons the result of extremophile organisms that exist at great depth and exude the hydrocarbons as waste products or are they the remainder of carbonaceous bodies that struck the proto-Earth during its consolidation? The first would never stop making oils and the second would run out but when?

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839">AlmostAnonymous5839 2009-09-14 16:07|| 2009-09-14 16:07|| Front Page Top

#8 I am sure we will never run of petroleum. I am also sure there is no limit to how much it can cost. We do have a small, safe fusion reactor just 8 minutes from here, and we scarcely use it.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-09-14 18:11|| 2009-09-14 18:11|| Front Page Top

#9 Wehell, we have innumerable MSM-Net reports on so-called "PEAK OIL" and related - whatzabout other SCARCE/PRECIOUS COMMIDITIES or NATURAL MINERALS - Gold, Silver, Zinc, Lead, Iron, Manganese,
...............@, ENERGY versus NON-ENERGY UTILITY!?

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-14 23:14|| na]">[na] 2009-09-14 23:14|| Front Page Top

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