Oil and the Future

Nice series in the Chicago Trib. Sure, it's written as doom-n'-gloom
entertainment rather than dry facts and analysis, but they gotta sell
papers. Does make one wonder about our own (general aviation) future.

Note: As a courtesy to r.a.p., and against all tradition, followups
have been redirected to r.a.misc.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oi...2956.htmlstory

Bob Fry wrote:
Nice series in the Chicago Trib. Sure, it's written as doom-n'-gloom
entertainment rather than dry facts and analysis, but they gotta sell
papers. Does make one wonder about our own (general aviation) future.

Note: As a courtesy to r.a.p., and against all tradition, followups
have been redirected to r.a.misc.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oi...2956.htmlstory

Chin up, grasshopper. There is still a future for Oil, especially if
you believe that Thomas Gold is right...

Abiogenic theory
The idea of abiogenic petroleum origin was championed in the Western
world by astronomer Thomas Gold based on thoughts from Russia, mainly
on studies of Nikolai Kudryavtsev. The idea proposes that large amounts
of carbon exist naturally in the planet, some in the form of
hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are less dense than aqueous pore fluids, and
migrate upward through deep fracture networks. Thermophilic,
rock-dwelling microbial life-forms are in part responsible for the
biomarkers found in petroleum.

According to the following authors; V. A. Krayushkin, T. I.
Tchebanenko, V. P. Klochko, Ye. S. Dvoryanin from the Institute of
Geological Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine, the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory
of deep, abiotic petroleum origins is by no means simply an academic
proposition. After its first enunciation by N. A. Kudryavtsev in 1951,
the modern theory was extensively debated and exhaustively tested.
Significantly, the theory not only withstood all tests put to it, but
it also settled many previously unresolved problems in petroleum
science, such as that of the intrinsic component of optical activity
observed in natural petroleum. It also demonstrated new patterns in
petroleum, previously unrecognized, such as the paleonological and
trace-element characteristics of reservoirs at different depths. Most
importantly, the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic
petroleum origins has played a central role in the transformation of
Russia (then the U.S.S.R.) from being a "petroleum poor" entity in
1951 to the largest petroleum producing and exporting nation on Earth,
principally with the drilling and development of the oil and gas fields
in the Dnieper-Donetsk Basin. (http://gasresources.net/DDBflds2.htm).
The four authors noted above, who were principally responsible for the
discovery of these fields, were awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in
the field of Science and Technology in 1993.

However, this theory is very much a minority opinion, especially
amongst western geologists. It often pops up when scientists are not
able to explain apparent oil inflows into certain oil reservoirs.
However, most of these "abiotic" fields are explained as being the the
result of geologic quirks. No western oil companies are currently known
to explore for oil based on this theory.