What Would King Hubbert Think of the Hundred Trillion Barrels of Oil Equivalent In the Bazhenov Formation?

Brian Wang says there are over 100 trillion barrels of oil equivalent in the Siberian Bazhenov (Jurassic) formation. If that is true, that would give Russia the greatest hydrocarbon resources of all world nations.

O&G Journal

Brian Wang
Peak oil saint M. King Hubbard felt that, as a geologist, he was aware of the size and location of most of the important oil deposits in the planetary crust. Possessing such knowledge, he felt quite confident in predicting that global peak oil would occur sometime between the mid 1980s and the early 2000s.

But something happened on the way to the global peak oil catastrophe and civilisational collapse. Tools of oil & gas exploration and production did not stand still. Oil fields that were thought to be beyond development suddenly became profitable to exploit. Older oil fields thought to be depleted were found to be producing once again, with the application of new technologies. And now, just when they thought that all the giant oil fields had been discovered, we are suddenly faced with the reality of the Bazhenov Jurassic formation -- thought by some to contain over 100 trillion barrels of oil equivalent.

Giant recoverable oil reserves contained in the fractures suggest that the Jurassic reservoir is a primary oil accumulation which has no analog all over the world. Therefore, we believe that Russia has the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. _O&G Journal

Whether the amount of recoverable oil in the Bazhenov Jurassic is 100 billion barrels or 1 trillion barrels, it is significant enough to maintain production for at least a century of prudent management.

We should point out that in order to produce oil from this formation, it will be necessary to use fracking technology -- an approach that Russian President Putin has condemned, at least when utilised in North America. Perhaps Russian fracking will be acceptable to Vladimir Bonaparte Putin.

More from Brian Westenhaus

Geochemistry of Upper Jurrasic Lower Cretaceous Bazhenov Formation

Abstract of USGS Ulmishek study of the West Siberia Basin

Full 4.5 MB PDF Ulmishek USGS Report on West Siberia Basin

Do Oil Wells Re-Charge Themselves?

There have been numerous reports in recent times, of oil and gas fields not running out at the expected time, but instead showing a higher content of hydrocarbons after they had already produced more than the initially estimated amount. This has been seen in the Middle East, in the deep gas wells of Oklahoma, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in other places. It is this apparent refilling during production that has been responsible for the series of gross underestimate of reserves that have been published time and again, the most memorable being the one in the early seventies that firmly predicted the end of oil and gas globally by 1987, a prediction which produced an energy crisis and with that a huge shift in the wealth of nations. Refilling is an item of the greatest economic significance, and also a key to understanding what the sources of all this petroleum had been. It is also of practical engineering importance, since we may be able to exercise some control over the refilling process. _Recharging of Oil & Gas Fields

RigzoneOf course we all understand the concept of "repressurising oil fields" using gas injection and other means.

As the oil or natural gas in a formation is produced, the hydrocarbons remaining in the reservoir may become trapped because the pressure in the formation has lessened, making production either slow dramatically or stop altogether.

...gas injection is used on a well to enhance waning pressure within the formation. Systematically spread throughout the field, gas-injection wells are used to inject gas and effectively sweep the formation for remaining petroleum, boosting production.... gas injection can serve as an economical way to dispose of uneconomical gas production on an oil reservoir. While in the past, low levels of natural gas that were produced from oil fields were flared or burned off, that practice is discouraged in some countries and against the law in others.

...Gas Injection, Gas Lift & Gas Miscible Process
Although the terms are sometimes interchanged, gas injection and gas lift are two separate processes that are used to increase production. While gas injection is a secondary production method, gas lift is a type of artificial lift.

Artificial lift is another way to increase production from a well by increasing pressure within the reservoir. The main types of artificial lift include gas lift and pumping systems, such as beam pumps, hydraulic pumps and electric submersible pumps.

While gas injection is achieved by injecting gas through its own injection well, gas lift occurs through the production wells. In gas lift, compressed gas is injected down the casing tubing annulus of a production well, entering the well at numerous entry points called gas-lift valves. As the gas enters the tubing at these different stages, it forms bubbles, lightens the fluids and lowers the pressure, thus increasing the production rate of the well.

Furthermore, a type of EOR employed on a well in the tertiary production process, a gas miscible process can be used to increase production. The difference in this recovery method is that the gases introduced into the reservoir are not naturally occurring. In a gas miscible process, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and LPG are injected into the reservoir. _Rigzone Gas Injection

Most of the oil in existing wells remains underground, waiting for people to become smart enough to retrieve it. Better enhanced oil recovery techniques will inevitably be developed to extract more and more of the residual hydrocarbon -- until it is no longer economical to do so. Then the remaining oil will wait for further developments.

Thomas Gold argues (here and here for example) that oil wells are charged and re-charged with new oil & gas from below. He claimed that most new hydrocarbons are generated deep in the crust, rising into geological traps at several different depths for particular parts of the crust. That is the abiogenic theory of hydrocarbon production, which is supported by astronomical data and by lab data simulating conditions in the deep crust and upper mantle.

Rapid charging of oil fields -- such as is suggested here -- would require deeper secondary reservoirs under pressure, feeding into the primary reservoirs as they are depleted.

There is another way in which oil & gas fields are re-charged -- via the biogenic production of oil & gas. But biogenic production via geologic heat and pressure is generally a much slower method of re-charging than Gold's abiogenic method. But it inevitably occurs all the same. Biogenic oil is a renewable resource, but it is renewable on a different time scale than humans generally use.

And yet, there is a way in which biogenic oil can "rapidly" recharge a depleted oil field. In the case of multiple communicating oil reservoirs at different depths, heat, and pressure, a deeper biogenic reservoir could re-fill a more superficial reservoir at variable rates, depending upon a number of factors. Oil & gas migrate upwardly, when given the opportunity. In this case, instead of "turtles all the way down," it is "oil & gas reservoirs all the way down." ;-)

Biogenic Oil FormationThis image illustrates the conventional idea of biogenic formation of oil. Imagine it taking place over and over again, during the 3 billion + years that photosynthetic life has been converting CO2 into various biological carbon polymers, layer stacked upon layer etc etc . . . . .

Abiogenic Hydrocarbons Forming in the Mantle

This image illustrates the likely abiogenic formation of hydrocarbons in the upper mantle. These hydrocarbons then can migrate upward into the crust, and become trapped under impermeable minerals. Abiogenic hydrocarbons almost certainly mix with biogenic hydrocarbons.

Abiogenic hydrocarbons are also modified in various ways by deep crust microbial populations. In other words, the predominately short-chain abiogenic hydrocarbons from the mantle can be converted to longer chain hydrocarbons on the way up.

Finally, there is the ocean crustal tectonic activity which feeds a constant supply of partially processed organic material to the deep crust and mantle via constant subduction of ocean crust beneath continental crust. This is a slow but steady pipeline which supplies feedstock for production of oil & gas on a constant basis. The Earth's huge gas hydrate resource likely owes a great deal to this tectonic process.

Previously published on Al Fin Energy

A Basic Understanding of Oil

The creation of oil, gas, coal, and kerogen is an ancient process, which has taken place over the eons ever since photosynthetic life first occurred in the oceans and seas. For example, did you know that the Alberta oil sands area was once part of a prehistoric sea?

Alberta's oilsands are in an area that was once part of a prehistoric sea and have yielded several important marine reptile fossils. _CBC.ca

Oil creation is a renewable process, but over quite a long time span. Gas is made more quickly and more ubiquitously under the seabed than oil, and is becoming so cheap and common as to be thought of as a nuisance in many locations.

But it is crude oil about which such a fuss has been made for the past 100 years or so. And a well educated person should know more about crude oil than he is likely to find in the media or on the doomer sites. This embedded book by oil insider Leonardo Maugeri is likely to fill a lot of holes in the oil education of most ordinary people.

The Age Of Oil

View more presentations from bankelal

"The Age of Oil" by Leonardo Maugeri is a basic-level primer on the various facets of the modern petroleum age, from past, to present, and to future. It is best to start with basic history and basic supportable facts. Then, if you wish to go out on a limb, at least you will have a solid foundation from where to start.

Where oil comes from, and a hint of where new oil may be found

Looking at changes in atmospheric concentrations of O2 and CO2 over time is another way of noting the underlying biological processes involved in making the plants and microbes that go into making fossil fuels.

Oil shale sediments were deposited on large lake beds in the US western states:

Lacustrine sediments of the Green River Formation were deposited in two large lakes that occupied 65,000 km2 in several sedimentary-structural basins in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah during early through middle Eocene time....The warm alkaline lake waters of the Eocene Green River lakes provided excellent conditions for the abundant growth of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) that are thought to be the major precursor of the organic matter in the oil shale. _geology.com

How old is the oldest oil? No one knows, since it hasn't yet been found. But some oil has reportedly been found in rock that was billions of years old. Photosynthetic life has been around almost 3 billion years, so that provides for a lot of oil creation in deep rock layers.

Geologists usually don't bother looking for oil in very ancient (Precambrian) rocks for two reasons:

Conventional wisdom insists that oil is derived almost exclusively from organic matter, and additional conventional wisdom assures us that life was exceedingly scarce on earth billions of years ago.

Any oil that was created billions of years ago would have surely been destroyed by intense pressures and high temperatures over the eons.

Yet, Precambrian oil in commercial quantities has been found in formations up to 2 billion years old (in Siberia, Australia, Michigan, for example). While some of this oil might have migrated in-to the Precambrian rocks from younger source rocks, some of it does seem indigenous and, therefore, ancient.

...Now, three Australian scientists (R. Buick, B. Rasmussen, B. Krapez) have discovered tiny nodules of bitumen (lumps of hydrocarbons) in sedimentary rocks up to 3.5 billion years old in Africa and Australia. These bitumen nodules were formed when natural hydrocarbons were irradiated by radioactive isotopes that coexisted in the ancient rocks. Futhermore, these African and Australian rock formations were never severely deformed or subjected to high temperatures. The possibility exists, therefore, that some of the earth's oldest rocks may contain substantial oil reserves. So far, no one has seriously looked for oil in Precambrian rocks because of the two preconceptions noted above. _Science-Frontiers

The planet has gone through a large number of cycles over the past few billion years. Unless you can go back through time and trace the large numbers of optimal areas for oil, gas, coal, kerogen, and bitumen formation which have come and gone, come and gone, come and gone -- and been hopelessly changed and disguised by ongoing geologic processes -- you may be easily persuaded that almost all the fossil fuels have already been found.

The "abiotic oil" concept is not discussed here because the concepts behind biotic oil are difficult enough for most people to understand. And most hydrocarbons produced in the mantle by abiotic processes are shorter chain hydrocarbons, as you might find in "wet gas." Biotic and abiotic hydrocarbons tend to mix in the crust and follow much the same routes of migration upward in many cases. But if you want a good example of quick renewable hydrocarbons, the abiotic variety might qualify.

Previously published on Al Fin Energy

Ancient Oil and Mass Extinctions: Connecting the Dots

Expansion to Extinction Over Last 540 Million Years
Mass extinctions have played an important role in the evolution of Terrestrial life. With each mass extinction, the way is cleared for the spread and adaptation of surviving species, and for the emergence of new species. But that is not what we will talk about today.

Recent findings in geochemistry have called into doubt some of the pet theories of climate scientologists scientists concerning acid oceans and mass ocean extinctions. Here is the abstract from the paper in PNAS:

Periods of oceanic anoxia have had a major influence on the evolutionary history of Earth and are often contemporaneous with mass extinction events. Changes in global (as opposed to local) redox conditions can be potentially evaluated using U system proxies. The intensity and timing of oceanic redox changes associated with the end-Permian extinction horizon (EH) were assessed from variations in 238U/235U (δ238U) and Th/U ratios in a carbonate section at Dawen in southern China. The EH is characterized by shifts toward lower δ238U values (from -0.37‰ to -0.65‰), indicative of an expansion of oceanic anoxia, and higher Th/U ratios (from 0.06 to 0.42), indicative of drawdown of U concentrations in seawater. Using a mass balance model, we estimate that this isotopic shift represents a sixfold increase in the flux of U to anoxic facies, implying a corresponding increase in the extent of oceanic anoxia. The intensification of oceanic anoxia coincided with, or slightly preceded, the EH and persisted for an interval of at least 40,000 to 50,000 y following the EH. These findings challenge previous hypotheses of an extended period of whole-ocean anoxia prior to the end-Permian extinction. _PNAS

More information on the study

The suggestion is that the ocean anoxia was secondary to the main extinction event, rather than being the cause. More study will be necessary to validate the isotopic techniques utilised. But this finding cannot but be a disappointment to the politically correct denizens of deep climate scientology science.

But what interests Al Fin know-it-all-o-tologists about this information, is how it may relate to the topic of the production and sequestration of ancient oil. Deep ocean anoxia is not only related to mass extinction events, it is also a component of oil formation in the deep seabed.

Sea bottom anoxia occurs routinely at the mouths of large rivers, where massive sediment routinely buries dead sealife that is constantly deposited on the seafloor. That is why rich oil fields are often found offshore of large river deltas -- either where the deltas are now, or where they were hundreds of millions of years ago.

An ancient oil sleuth must be able to backward-trace the movements of continents and great river valleys, in order to know where to look for such sediment-buried deposits.

Another cause of mass sediment burial of seafloor organic material, is massive volcanic activity. This would be particularly important to an ancient oil sleuth when a group of volcanoes might stay active for millions of years, in the same general vicinity upwind of river deltas or rich upwelling currents.

But in cases of mass extinctions, the large scale deep ocean anoxia occurring at the same time as massive deposition of organic material onto the seafloor, might be a particularly rich time for the initiation of large scale oil production.

When this process occurs over continental crust, the oil can be preserved for a very long time. If it occurs over oceanic crust, the oil may be subducted with the crust into the mantle, where it will likely be converted into short chain hydrocarbons, CO2, CO, and other forms of carbon. The short chain hydrocarbons may return to the crust, and may eventually be recovered economically. Diamond and graphite may also return to depths which allows humans to recover them economically.

Regardless, it is the ancient oil we are interested in. The challenge is to connect the extinction events, the ocean anoxia, and the ancient geographic patterns together, to provide the best guess for the locations of giant oil deposits which might conceivably still exist in an undiscovered, but ultimately recoverable state.

Humans have become accustomed to utilising the easy oil, and are just now getting good at recovering oil from the harsh, deep ocean environments. That is a good thing, because the Earth is 70% ocean-covered.

Still, some the planet which was once covered by oceans is now dry land, and such places -- if they fit the criteria above -- might be some of the first locations to check out.

First published at Al Fin, the Next Level, and also published at Al Fin Energy

Ancient Oil Sleuths Track Tectonic Twists and Turns

Rivers of the Modern World
Most crude oil comes from ancient marine organisms which bloomed, died, sank, and were covered by sediment to transform under conditions of heat and pressure into petroleum. The organisms required sunshine, CO2, and nutrients -- plus sedimentary cover. These conditions were best met in tropical seas which received nutrient-rich outflows from either rivers or rich sea currents and upwellings.

But rivers supply both nutrients and sediment, so it makes sense to look to areas which were offshore from ancient river deltas. Above, you can see the main rivers of the modern world.

ImageSource
But the continents of the Earth were not always in their current relationship to each other. 250 mya the continents were situated close together in a formation now referred to as Pangaea. The geology of the landmasses of that time were somewhat different, meaning that different rivers flowed into different seas.

This movement of the continents in relation to each other is caused by plate tectonics, a dynamic phenomenon which is largely controlled by actions at the bottom of the seas.

The graphic above is meant to illustrate possible sites for "abiotic oil" deposits, but if you look carefully at the oceans, you can find seafloor ridges which are ground zero for the motion of the continents. New seafloor -- as molten lava which cools and solidifies in contact with seawater -- is pushed upward from beneath the ocean crust, causing a spreading of the ocean crust outward. Eventually the ocean crust is pushed into contact with thicker continental crust, where it subducts -- dives downward into the mantle. This subduction is associated with volcano formation, and other geologic changes, such as slow movement of the continental plates.

ImageSource
This "dance of the continents" is likely to bring the land masses together again in the future, over and over again in different formations. This is important in relation to where very old oil deposits are likely to be found, and where large future deposits of oil are likely to be formed in their turn.

For example, why is oil often found in deserts and arctic wastes?

Oil and gas result mostly from the rapid burial of dead microorganisms in environments where oxygen is so scarce that they do not decompose. This lack of oxygen enables them to maintain their hydrogen-carbon bonds, a necessary ingredient for the production of oil and gas. Newly developing ocean basins, formed by plate tectonics and continental rifting, provide just the right conditions for rapid burial in anoxic waters. Rivers rapidly fill these basins with sediments carrying abundant organic remains. Because the basins have constricted water circulation, they also have lower oxygen levels than the open ocean. For instance, the Gulf of California, an ocean basin in development, is making new oil and gas in real time today. The Gulf of Mexico is also a great example of new oil and gas formation in a restricted circulation environment (see image at right above).

The same plate tectonics that provides the locations and conditions for anoxic burial is also responsible for the geologic paths that these sedimentary basins subsequently take. Continental drift, subduction and collision with other continents provide the movement from swamps, river deltas and mild climates--where most organics are deposited--to the poles and deserts, where they have ended up today by coincidence. In fact, the Libyan Sahara Desert contains unmistakable glacial scars and Antarctica has extensive coal deposits--and very likely abundant oil and gas--that establish that their plates were once at the other ends of the earth (see image at right). _SciAm

Similar detective work may lead prospectors to rich petroleum deposits lying between Norway, Iceland, and Greenland. By the same logic applied to more recent timelines, oil and gas in the South China Sea is likely to be discovered.

As the SciAm article above explains, when a river flows into a limited basin -- such as the Gulf of Mexico -- oil and gas formation are most likely to occur due to rapid sedimentation. But thanks to plate tectonics and shifting continents and river-beds, many areas where rivers once flowed into limited basins have become something completely different, today.

It is no challenge to find oil where crude is already seeping to the surface. That was the case in the early days of oil discovery in the US, the Persian Gulf, and Central Asia. But to find the oil of ancient seas -- that is a challenge. Particularly since that is where most of the world's oil awaits.

Taken from a recent article at Al Fin the Next Level

The Earth is floating on a sea of hydrocarbons. We are approaching a time when we will be able to "recycle" the carbon we consume, into yet more hydrocarbons and high value chemicals. For more invormation on such trends, be sure to follow the Al Fin Energy blog.

Massive Amounts of Water Entrained Into Earth's Mantle

SD
As oceanic crustal plates grow and butt against continental plates, they subduct under the continental plates. As they dive into the Earth's mantle for "re-cycling", these ocean crusts carry large quantities of water and sediment with them. Geologists are learning more about what happens to the subducted water.

Scientists know: many volcanoes need water for their eruption. In the upper mantle, water lowers the melting temperature of the rocks. As a consequence, it melts faster and can ascend in form of magma to the Earth's surface. In areas where an oceanic plate is pushed underneath a continent by plate tectonics processes, large quantities of water reach the interior of the Earth.

Such a region, called subduction zone, can be found at the west coast of Latin and South America. Through large cracks formed during the subduction process of the oceanic plates water penetrates, is partly captured and transported in the mantle. There, high pressure and temperatures squeeze it out of the subducting plate and the water ascends back to the surface. On the way back it supports the formation of magma. Therefore all subduction zones are characterized by volcanoes at the continental margin.

"So far we knew that the entrainment of water into the Earth's mantle in the area of subductions zones is substantial and that it is released again by volcanic process. Nevertheless, the exact path of the water down to the mantle and back to the surface had so far not been shown in one unifying context," explains Tamara Worzewski, geophysicist in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 574 "Fluids and Volatiles in Subduction Zones -- Climate Feedback and Trigger Mechanisms for Natural Hazards" who has investigated these processes. Together with Dr. Marion Jegen and Prof. Dr. Heidrun Kopp from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel and colleagues Dr. Heinrich Brasse from the Freie Universität Berlin and Dr. Waldo Taylor from Costa Rica, she was able to show for the first time the complete water path from the seafloor down to 120 kilometre depth and back to the surface using electromagnetic methods.

The study, now published in Nature Geoscience, is also part of Worzewskis PhD Study. _SD

PBSRegular readers of Al Fin and Al Fin Energy will be aware of these blogs' interest in hydrocarbons that find themselves inside the Earth's mantle. But the fate of water in the mantle can be closely tied to the fate of much of the organic carbon which finds its way into the mantle by the same subductive process. Volcanic eruptions clear a great deal of both water and carbon from the mantle, along with other gaseous and mineral matter. It is part of the ongoing geologic cycles of the planet.

And yet, massive amounts of crustal organic carbon and mantle hydrocarbons persist long enough to migrate and transform into potentially economic reserves of "fossil fuels." Most of this resource will remain unkown to humans, despite a great deal of it settling within the growing technological and economic reach of humans.

We have barely begun to learn the basics about our planet, our climate, our solar system, our portion of the spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, and so on. How absurd it is that pseudoscientific quasi-religions such as catastrophic anthropogenic global warming orthodoxy, or peak oil DOOM!, should find such large, gullible, and enthusiastic followings.

Massive Dieoff of Algae 250 MYA: Poisonous Upheaval at PT Junction

Physorg
At the junction of the Permian and Triassic periods around 250 million years ago, the algae of the world appear to have been killed off by massive amounts of hydrogen sulfide. Massive volcanic activity triggered an enormous release of toxic gases as well as large quantities of CO2. The ocean's ecosystems were overturned, as only 1 in 10 ocean species survived. Massive quantities of dead algae, animals, and vegetation descended onto a dark and suddenly anaerobic seafloor, and were buried by large masses of ash and other sediment. In other words, a perfect environment for the formation of oil and other hydrocarbons. So, what happened to them?

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian period almost cleared the planet of life 250 million years ago. Only one in ten species in the ocean survived. Two-thirds of reptiles and amphibians disappeared. Even plants and insects suffered major losses. But in this near-perfect strike, the first "pin" to topple may have been algae, according to researchers studying molecular fossils from this time.

The Permian-Triassic, or P-T, extinction event happened long before dinosaurs had even appeared on the scene. Often called the Great Dying, it was the most dramatic pruning of the tree of life that we have on record. "It was not only the largest, but also the most enigmatic mass extinction of all time," says Roger Summons from MIT.

Unlike the dinosaur die-off, there's no credible evidence of an asteroid impact to blame for the P-T extinction. Instead, scientists have been forced to sort through a number of factors: The formation of the supercontinent Pangaea reduced shallow marine habitats; slower ocean circulation deprived the deep ocean of oxygen; and one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history caused a spike in carbon dioxide that would have greatly warmed the planet.
On top of all that, hydrogen sulfide – a lethal gas that smells of rotten eggs – may have poisoned the ocean and the atmosphere. Summons and his colleagues are leading proponents of this theory, having discovered molecular evidence for a substantial proliferation of bacteria that rely on hydrogen sulfide for their metabolism. _Physorg

More fascinating detail at the link above.

The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Photosynthetic organisms have been converting sunlight, CO2, and water into carbohydrates and lipids for about 3.5 billion years. And yet, most of the oil and gas that humans have accessed, originated roughly 200 million years or fewer ago.

Certainly CO2 levels were far higher in earlier periods of geologic history. Uncountable numbers of photosynthetic organisms lived and died to make and keep the planet's atmosphere oxygen rich and CO2 poor (currently 0.04% of atmosphere is CO2 vs over 20% O2).

It is highly likely that other less prominent dieoffs, accompanied by massive volcanism, occurred throughout the long geologic history of the planet. Each time CO2 concentrations shot up, Earth's photosynthetic arsenal massed itself to meet the challenge, and restore the oxygen heavy balance of the planet's gases.

Over and over again, massive volumes of plankton and vegetation were buried in deep anaerobic conditions, leading to unimaginable volumes of hydrocarbon generation. And almost all of that occurring in parts and depths of the Earth's crust which humans have not yet explored with any care.

Reporting in the journal Nature, scientists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the Institut de Ciencies del Mar (Spanish Research Council) have revealed a new model that explains how continents thin as well as helping to more accurately predict the location of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas. _SD

via New Energy and Fuel
A new model of continental thinning, faulting, and re-forming, promises to provide new ways to locate vast new petroleum reserves. Scientists at institutions in the UK and Spain hopes to provide petroleum prospectors with new conceptual tools for determining the most likely areas to find the billions of years worth of hidden hydrocarbons.

The new model is based on high-resolution images of the tectonic structure of the crust at such margins. These images are obtained using elaborate seismic methods, which give a picture of the crust below the oceans, showing where faults and sediments are.

The new model has important implications for the formation of hydrocarbon resources, plus it offer a new view of the style of faulting during continental thinning, sediment deposition and potentially for the opening of oceanic gateways and oceanic circulation. _BrianWestenhaus

The geologic sciences are still quite young, sharpening their teeth on ideas that take into account the antiquity of the planet, the incessant nature of geologic processes, and of microbial and photosynthetic organisms which have thrust their way into the midst of epochal geologic upheaval.

Older geologic theories focused upon easily accessible sediments from relatively recent geologic regions -- areas laid down millions or dozens of millions of years ago as opposed to the billions of years that photosynthesis has been converting CO2 to organic carbon. Exceptions to conventional theory have popped up from time to time, but have been largely ignored as anomalous.

As large international companies get shut out of the richest oil reserves of OPEC nations and corrupt, unreliable nations such as Russia, they are forced to look for oil wherever it may be found. Continental shelves off large rivers such as the Mississippi and the Amazon are likely places for grabbing oil dozens of millions of years old. But to find the truly old oil and hydrocarbon, some new ideas will be necessary -- and will require testing. All of that takes time, which the big international oil companies are running out of, caught between political peak oil (Obama, Boxer, Salazar, etc.) and sovereign oil companies that nationalise the valuable assets and work of multi-nationals at the least opportunity.

Why the Age of Oil Is Just Beginning & Why It May Soon End

Petroleum is thought to have originated mainly from the remains of sediments of photosynthetic organisms which sedimented from ancient seas, and were heated and compressed by geological processes. Assuming that to be true, it is interesting to note that photosynthetic organisms originated almost 3.5 billion years ago. From the chart above, one can note that the Oxygen concentration of Earth's atmosphere rose markedly at about the same time as the origin of cyanobacteria (2.8 gya), eukaryotes (2 gya), and algae (1 gya), respectively.

The higher the oxygen level the higher the rate of sedimentation of photosynthetic organisms, presumably. Note that such sedimentation began to occur nearly 3 gya. Also note that the vast majority of petroleum which humans have begun to tap into, originated roughly 100 mya or more recently. I think you will agree with me that the Proterozoic Era (2.5 gya to about 540 gya) is likely to have been extremely prolific in the sense of laying down organic carbon in sediments.

Now, observe the Tethys Sea in the image (see Tethys Ocean). The Tethys Sea (Ocean) opened about 250 mya and closed about 10 mya. Most of the modern world's known oil and gas reserves lie in the sediments which once underlay the Tethys water masses. Much of this oil and gas is of fairly recent origin, geologically speaking, although some dates back to the early Triassic (250 to 200 mya). It only takes a hundred thousand years or so to make petroleum by natural means, depending upon local geology.

Now, I know you are saying to your computers, "But Al, if we are only beginning to tap a very small fraction of all the oil that has been deposited, where is all the rest of the oil?"

To which I reply, "Where do you think it is? Floating beyond the orbit of Pluto?" No, seriously, a lot of things can happen to oil deposits over time. Some can seep into oceans and be eaten by microbes. Some can be turned into various types of gas, and escape or be adsorbed by minerals. But most of it is likely to have been buried in the constant geologic upheaval of the planet's layers of rock.

The Japanese and Chinese have recently begun finding significant deposits of oil and gas within volcanic rock. Oil geologists are beginning to look beneath undersea volcanic deposits for submerged oil fields of great potential. The Russians have been finding significant petroleum beneath deep igneous and metamorphic layers for many years. The history of oil formation goes back over ten times farther than almost all of the oil humans have retrieved or located so far -- although drops of bitumen has been found in rocks dated between 2.6 and 3.2 gya.

Australian expert in petroleum geology, Associate Professor Colin Ward of the University of New South Wales, says it's not surprising that algae and other simple life forms existed during this early stage of the Earth's history.

What is significant, is that there are now signs they were producing oil.

"He's found good evidence that the processes that generate oil were active in a very early history," he says.

Rasmussen's discovery may have implications for exploration, Ward says.

"It focuses attention back on very old rocks as a possible places to look for more oil and gases," he says. _Source

So why do I say that the age of oil may be ending soon? Because while it takes 100,000 years (plus or minus) to make petroleum by natural processes, it only takes a matter of weeks -- from start of algae crop to harvesting and processing -- using modern methods. Yes, modern oil made this way is very expensive, but that is because we have just begun learning to create it. Within 20 years, Al Fin energy experts assure me that microbial fuels and energy will be fully price-competitive with petroleum, and rapidly scaling to match production within 30 years.

You may hear a lot of talk about "peak oil" in certain circles. The most likely kinds of peak oil you will see are "political peak oil" from bad energy policy or political conflict, and "peak demand" -- when consumers choose other forms of energy and fuel than petroleum. Peak demand can also occur from economic, or other forms of collapse, which we hope does not occur.

The beginning of oil, the end of oil. Mayhaps both.

More 9Nov10: Whether crude oil survives or is decomposed to wet and / or dry natural gas probably depends more upon the catalytic environment in the reservoir than the temperature. The presence of mineral catalysts changes the decomposition picture significantly. We may discover that much of the sub-seafloor methane clathrate resource is a result of this type of natural catalysis of crude oil to natural gas, which migrates upward to a cooler, moister environment and is captured in clathrate. Of course, abiotic gas might well do the same thing in some formations.

Oil From Ancient Seas: Where Ahoy?

Oil was formed in warm, ancient seas, from microscopic organisms which thrived in a high CO2 environment. The first photosynthetic micro-organisms evolved around 3.5 billion years ago, which provides a great deal of time for hydrocarbon formation through the eons. Modern oil companies are scooping up the most recently formed crude oil, from deposits formed just a few dozens or hundreds of millions of years ago -- from the ancient sea-beds and former sea-beds which were easy to locate. But where will we find the multi-billion year ancient seabeds -- the really big oil fields? It will require a great deal of patience, detective work, and advanced technological tools -- some of which have not been invented yet.

If you want to go prospecting in history for likely locations of super-giant oil deposits, look for the ancient sea-beds. The Wikipedia reconstruction of Earth's tectonic history should give you a rough idea of where the ancient seas may have been. The YouTube video below provides another look at the dynamic ballet of continents and plates. Pay careful attention, insert a bit of creative extrapolation and interpolation, and draw your own conclusions.

If you look down below at the Wikipedia clock representation of Earth's time scale -- far back into the pink -- you will see where photosynthesis begins, around 3.5 billion years ago. Then travel clockwise all the way through the pink and yellow to get to the blue and green, where the seabed locations of modern oil formation opened up to provide ideal environments for oil formation. What happened to all of the oil from the roughly 3 billion years between the start of photosynthesis and the generation of modern oil, originating from all of those wildly reproducing photosynthetic microbes?

If you watch the undulations of the tectonic plates, and the constantly opening and closing of sea basins over the 600 million years pictured in the YouTube video, you can see that the perfect windows for oil formation were constantly opening and closing. No sooner would a perfect warm sea open up for oil production, than the tectonic plates would shift and cover it up.

All the while massive vulcanisation was taking place within and around the sedimentary basins where rich oil deposits from past ancient seas were sitting in the boiling heat deep underground. What happened to all of those billions of years of deposits?

Some must have escaped as gas or volatile hydrocarbon, migrating to upper layers of the crust, or into the atmosphere. Some of the oil would have likewise found its way to upper layers of crust, trapped by impermeable layers -- or escaping as seeps to be metabolised by oil-munching microbes.

But some of it -- perhaps a huge part of it -- is still trapped beneath volcanic rock, beneath moving tectonic plates, beneath billions of years of sediment. Waiting for clever boys and girls to track it down.

More: Recent study of a massive rotational shift of the super-continent Gondwana approx. 525 mya

Growing awareness of rich variety of life beneath the seafloor

Deep open ocean most unexplored part of planet

It should be clear that since 70% of Earth is covered by ocean, most of the planet's treasure trove of petroleum and other fossil fuels is likely to lie beneath the seas. Both polar regions are relatively unexplored in terms of mineral wealth, but the same is true for the open oceans. Although it does not take a genius to suppose that large deposits of oil may lie in the Gulf of Mexico or under the ancient Tethys Sea, it may take a great deal of clever detective work to find earlier versions of these nutrient-fed warm water shallow seas -- and where the sediments may have migrated over the past hundreds of millions of years.

Ancient Geologic Upheaval Still Hides Most of Earth's Oil

NYTScientists have known for quite a while that most of Earth's oil came from vast numbers of oceanic microscopic organisms -- rather than from dead dinosaurs. From diatoms to micro-algae to cyanobacteria and more, these microscopic life forms thrived on warmer seas and higher levels of atmospheric CO2 than are presently available to sea life. Many of these sea creatures are capable of converting gaseous or dissolved CO2 directly into oils and hydrocarbons of various types, and would cheerfully welcome much higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and in the oceans, if only they could get it.

Geologists scour the planet for the sedimentary basins of ancient seas, in order to find the vast deposits of oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons still waiting to be discovered. Humans may have used perhaps one tenth of exploitable oil deposits, but Al Fin engineers reckon we have used only about one one hundredth. Not that oil is an ideal energy source. Far from it. But we should know that we are quite far from running out -- even while we are discovering how to grow these tiny organisms for ourselves, to produce a wide range of materials, feeds, and fuels at the time and place of our own choosing.

Some of the ancestral waters that made the planet’s oil still exist, like the Gulf of Mexico, while others have long vanished, like the ocean that produced the massive oil fields of the Middle East. The bodies come and go because the earth’s crust, through seemingly rigid, actually moves a great deal over geologic time, tearing apart continents and ocean basins and rearranging them like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The secret of the oil story turned out to be understanding how the bygone oceans, ancient seas and smaller bodies of water produced complex environmental conditions that raised the prevalence of microscopic life and ensured its deep burial, producing what eventually became the earth’s main oil reservoirs.

The clues accumulated over more than a century and included discoveries from geology, chemistry and paleontology. An early indication was that petroleum discoveries were always associated with ancient beds of sedimentary rock — the kind that forms when debris rains down through water for ages and slowly grows into thick seabed layers.

...The process typically starts in warm seas ideal for the incubation of microscopic life. The sheer mass is hard to imagine. But scientists note that every drop of seawater contains more than a million tiny organisms.

Oil production begins when surface waters become so rich in microscopic life that the rain of debris outpaces decay on the seabed. The result is thickening accumulations of biologic sludge.

...“The organics got buried quickly because of the heavy sediment flow,” Dr. Tinker said. “So they didn’t get biodegraded as quickly. You preserved the organic richness.”

He said the flow was so heavy that the growing accumulations keep pressing the lower sediment layers deeper into the earth, forcing them into hot zones where the organic material got transformed into oil. The process involves a long series of chemical reactions that slowly turn life molecules into inanimate crude.

“The gulf has miles and miles of sediments,” he said. “So that gets the source rocks down into the kitchen where they cook.”

The standard temperature for oil formation is between 120 and 210 degrees Fahrenheit.

...Many countries and oil companies are now racing to exploit the geological happenstance of deep coastal waters. Hot spots include offshore areas of Angola, Azerbaijan, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Libya and Tanzania, while countries like Canada and Norway, which have long pursued offshore drilling, are pushing ahead with new plans. Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm, estimates that global deepwater extraction could roughly double by 2015, the output rivaling what Saudi Arabia produces on land. _NYT

The new offshore oil fields coming on line will rival Saudi Arabian production -- even if the Saudis decide to ramp up their production even higher than at present.

But many more giant fields await discovery until geologists develop better tools to find ancient ocean basins lying beneath subsequent overlaying deposits of seismic and volcanic upheaval. Earth's warm water sea floors have been turned around a great deal over the past billions of years. It is likely that we have not yet found the richest fossil fuel fields.

For most of the planet, geologists simply do not have a clue what lies beneath. They will need far better tools than the primitive seismic, electromagnetic, and other tools which currently limit their vision. But those tools are coming. And those vast unknown deposits will be found, if they are ever needed.

Previously published at Al Fin Energy

All the Oil In the World

Brian Wang provides an edifying comparison of the amount of oil and the amount of water in the world.

If you mixed it all of the oil into the oceans then you would be looking at about 1 part per million. Which is about 35 times less than the EPA defined safe limit of 35 parts per million limit. _NextBigFuture

Oil and water have been mixing for billions of years. When oil mixes with water, the oil is consumed by micro-organisms, and the water abides to provide a home for sea animals, to circle the Earth time and time again, to fall from the sky, to freeze in glaciers miles thick . . . . over and over through the eons.

The deep offshore oil drilling game has just begun. Any nations which prohibit the drilling of oil off their own coasts are simply dooming themselves to buy expensive oil from foreign sources -- many of them quite violent and disreputable. Humans still need oil, will continue to need oil, gas, and coal for several decades.

Humans have only depended on fossil fuels for just over 200 years, and have several hundreds of years of fossil fuel reserves remaining (counting all forms of fossil fuels). The life of the land and the oceans can handle far more CO2 than the trifling 0.04% that resides in the Earth's atmosphere. Most of Earth's land and sea life evolved at a time when the CO2 concentration was several times higher than at present, and would be thrilled to have more carbon.

But it might be best for industrial nations, at least, to shift to safe, clean, compact nuclear power. A wise use of nuclear fuels could provide humans with tens of thousands of years worth of fissionable fuel. It would take us between 30 and 50 years to shift most of our power generation away from fossil fuels and over to clean and sustainable nuclear fission.

In that period of time, unlimited nuclear fusion is likely to be quite close -- if not already arrived.

"Greens", or faux environmentalists, want to shut down fossil fuels and nuclear energy. They believe that by doing so they will be "saving the Earth." But it is their religion, so they are not thinking rationally.

The Earth is doomed -- has always been doomed -- since before it originated. But there is a question of what will be done on the planet while it exists.

The only intelligent life known to exist, exists on this one planet. Faux environmentalists wish to bring about a great human dieoff.org, to save a planet that is already doomed. They wish to bring about this dieoff as soon as possible -- preferably before humans develop the type of technology which would allow them to travel to space where they could protect the Earth and Earth life from malevolent heavenly bodies and other forces. If advanced civilisations are starved by well-meaning "Greens", then humans will remain stuck on the ground -- unable to protect the planet from its greatest threats which will come out of the dark void.

Humans are on the brink of developing technologies that would allow for clean and relatively limitless energy. Technologies that would allow the cleaning of Earth's land, water, and air to pristine conditions. Technologies that would see Earth life colonising the solar system and beyond -- guaranteeing a far longer existence in the universe than confinement to only one planet would have allowed.

Many of Earth's governments have fallen into the hands of faux environmentalists and dieoff.org enthusiasts. The United States' government is one such. Many nations of Europe suffer from the same faux environmentalist religion as well. Australia and Canada have also had their struggles with the malignant quasi-religion of the great dieoff.

It is good to know if your government is under the control of an elitist group of quasi-religionists of doom. You need to know what you are working and paying for.