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Scientific Abiotic Oil The Buzzword

The new ‘Goliat’ platform awaits commissioning in a fjord near Hammerfest, Norway, last April. Now moored in the Barents Sea at 71° north, it’s the world’s northernmost offshore oil platform.

No Dinosaurs In Abiotic Oil

Abiotic Oil is ridiculed as a ‘conspiracy theory’ by the major scientific community. Abiotic is lifeless, nonliving matter. They believed oil was only produced by organics. Most US geo-scientists will say plankton or algae are responsible for decay into ‘fossil fuels.’

Sepppo Korpella, Ohio State, argues fossil fuels form when ‘early sedimentary layers’ are deprived of oxygen when and organic matter does not decay. Then ‘anerobic bacteria’ can turn organic material into the substance called ‘kerogen.’ Kerogen, or korpella posits, can be described as “immature oil.” The term “anerobic,” is the lack of free oxygen. Anerobic bacteria turns organic material into kerogen. “Anerobic” refers to a process occurring without free oxygen. When kerogen is found at depths between 6000-13000 feet, temperature and pressure will turn the kerogen to oil.

Goliat oil platform in a fjord, Norway.
The new ‘Goliat’ platform awaits commissioning in a fjord near Hammerfest, Norway, last April. Now moored in the Barents Sea at 71° north, it’s the world’s northernmost offshore oil platform. Photo: National Geographic

For depths over 13,000 feet, temperatures are high enough to ‘crack’ oil into gas. Kerogen is not a chemist’s term, but a loose geologic term defined as: “the naturally occurring solid, insoluble organic material, that occurs in source-rocks, and yields oil upon heating.”
[Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary;
www.slb.com : Kerogen]

Textbooks typically do not supply chemical formulae for kerogen. Tests have directly implied methane exists at depths between 150-300 miles. The vast size of earth’s mantle, means hydrocarbon reserves are probably much larger than found in the crust alone.

The thermodynamic ability for methane to stay stable under mantle conditions, indicate reserves could potentially exist for millions of years. In 1998, Thomas Gold published a controversial book The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels.

Supposed oil depletion could be deciphered from Hubbert’s Peak. In 1956 geophysicist M. King Hubbert published a graph – simply a bell-shaped curve – predicting US oil would peak, gradually falling to zero by 2050. Hubbert’s Peak was universally accepted among geologists. Options included scaling back our economy, and demanding solar and wind – cost be damned.

Per the Energy Information Administration, EIA, oil represents reserves with an unbroken progression of increasing over the last quarter century. Another indication peak-oil theory was a hoax, occurred in 2008, when oil prices skyrocketed to $147/barrel, but diving under $40/barrel by years-end.

Deep-Water 0il

In the last 20 years, deep-earth and deep-water drilling has been the fastest segment of the energy industry. By early 2012, 40 rigs were drilling in the Gulf, compared to only 25 a year ago. The Energy Information Administration, EIA, expects gulf-oil to expand from 1.3 million barrels to 2 million barrels/day by 2020. Deepwater drilling involves drilling through the continental shelves in water thousands of feet deep.

The EIA estimates world consumption of natural gas is expected to increase from 111 trillion cubic feet in 2008, to 169 trillion cubic feet in 2035. [http:www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/]

A deep gas well produces gas from a depth below 15,000 feet (2.84 miles). There was 2,500 active natural gas wells producing in the US. Today there are approximately 400,000 producing natural gas wells. Seventy percent are at 5,000 feet, and 7 percent comes from formations below 15,000. Yet, the DOE estimates 125 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is thought trapped.

With 71 percent of the earth’s surface mostly unexplored, geo-scientists cannot reliably estimate all the deep-earth and deep-water hydrocarbon fuels present. In 1951, the Department of the Interior stated oil and gas reserves in the US would be exhausted in 13 years.

Wind Farms In Dustbin Of History

After moratorium, Obama directed the Interior Department to install 130 wind turbines with a hub-height of 285 feet. Overall, the Cape Wind Project was supposed to have wind leases along the Outer Continental Shelf of six states. But windmills are much more expensive than electricity from hydrocarbons.

Failed oilman T. Boone Pickens said his windfarm was the nation’s most expensive boondoggle. Pickens took a $2-billion loss on his wind turbines. A long ride through Indiana reveals a huge wind farm with still-rotors for miles, with only a few slowly turning.

U.S. Bakken Formation

The Bakken Formation, discovered in 1980, was primarily located in Montana and North Dakota. It was thought to have only 151 million recoverable barrels in 1995. But, an advanced-drilling technology assessment concluded Bakken had 4 billion barrels of oil, or a 2800 percent increase.

Even after 2011, operators using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing continued to increase estimates. Congress revealed there was actually 24 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken, not including three other shale producing formations in the area.

Goldman-Sachs issued a report in 2011 saying the US would be the largest oil-producing country by 2017. That level of production would surpass both Saudi Arabia and Russia. After 60 years, the world has abundant hydrocarbon fuels, an even Sinclair Oil has dropped their Dinosaur Logo. Americans need to be told the truth oil and natural gas, are not now, and never were, fossil fuels.

Oh, what a retired Chemical Engineer can reap by learning from the PhD, Jerome Corsi

A former Chemical Engineer, Kevin Roeten enjoys riding the third rail of journalism: politics and religion. He is a Guest Columnist for the Asheville Citizen-Times, and the Independent (Ohio), writes for numerous blogs, is an amateur astronomer, and delves into scientific topics.

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