[jocon307]

"If he was right, it means the finite limits of the resources that power our cities and our factories and our vehicles have been vastly overstated."

This is a terrible sentence. Does it mean there is more than was thought or less? It is completely unclear.

[Obadiah]

I have been saying this for years. However, everytime I raise this theory, many here pooh-pooh it. I maintain that there is a very good chance that this in fact happens. Do scientists even know much about the earth's core? No, not much.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Essentially gravity plus rocks makes methane. It may well make some more complicated hydrocarbons. And it probably makes them world wide at the appropriate depth. And some of them semi-randomly work their way to harvestable depths. This is all to the good, but it doesn't tell us how much is made annually at those depths and how much of that each year reaches harvestable depths in commercially useful quantities. This is worth further research, but don't count it as the solution to the energy problem until at least enough is known to convert it to an engineering problem. Science does know where a nearly infinite supply of methane is gravitationally blocked from us... at several sites in the out solar system. The deep earth sources are smaller and may be harder to tap.

[Bernard Marx]

"I expected nothing to happen," he says. "But sure enough, it formed methane. It was a bit of a shock."

To me this is the scary statement: the predetermination of results. At least he was intellectually rigorous enough to actually do the experiment. It reminds me of the 'archaeologists' who didn't bother to dig below the Clovis level at their sites because they 'knew' they wouldn't find anything.

It's what we 'know' that isn't true that can hurt us.

[NormsRevenge]

I remember falling asleep as I listened to some guy explain how the earth is like a giant refinery of products that are continually being produced as part of a geocosmic life supporting body.

pretty incredible, the amount of untold renewing energy and wealth that lies beneath our feet.

Please, don't upset the Mole People tapping into it. ;-)

[tpaine]

-- There is no 'question' whatsoever that methane is formed throughout the solar system by heat & pressure.
-- After all, 'Gas Giant' planets do exist.

Thus the only question remaining is: -- why is that fact ignored when we discuss the formation of hydrocarbons on earth?

[FairOpinion]

Very interesting.

Here is a potential technique to get more oil out:

US says CO2 injection could quadruple oil reserves

The United States, where oil production has been declining since the 1970s, has the potential to boost its oil reserves four-fold through advanced injection of carbon dioxide into depleted oilfields, the Department of Energy said on Friday.

The United States, the world's top oil consumer, has been successfully pumping small amounts or carbon dioxide into depleted oil and natural gas fields for 30 years to push out hard-to-reach fossil fuels.

The DOE said 89 billion barrels could potentially be added to current proved U.S. oil reserves of 21.9 billion barrels through injection of carbon dioxide, the main gas that most scientists believe is warming the earth.

[RightWhale]

Earth is hollow with a miniature sun at the center. The entrance is at the north pole, and UFOs come from there.

[Physicist]

Now, a couple of decades after Gold first suggested that hydrocarbons are formed deep underground by geological processes and not just below the surface by biological decay, there is increasing evidence that he may have been on to something.

Perhaps Gold also suggested a non-biological mechanism for generating the microscopic fossils that are found in association with petroleum deposits.

[bubman]

I am shocked that ABCNews actually ran this story.

This theory has been advanced by russian scientists as far back as the thirties under Stalin.

[hosepipe]

Right.... If not then, where did the methane come from on other planets in our solar system.. and who knows maybe even undiscovered crude oil within them.. as well..

But the concept does go against sacred "EVO" dogma that bleeds into the geologists minds.. That petrolem deposits come from buried organic sources.. and diamonds too.. Interesting

If true the concept has a hard row to hoe.. to surface..
Academia has always fought hard against the TRUTH...

[capt. norm]

This would mean that at least some petroleum is not a fossil fuel.

[ASOC]

Humm OK, lets see --

Titan has "Oceans of hydrocarbons" (http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/news/expandnews.cfm?id=532) Io has hydrocarbons
(Salama, F. (1999). Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Interstellar Medium. A Review. In Solid Interstellar Matter: The ISO Revolution, L. d'Hendecourt, C. Joblin, & A. Jones, eds., (EDP Sciences: Les Ullis, France), pp. 65-87.) and

(Salama, F., Galazutdinov, G. A., Krelowski, J. Allamandola, L. J., & Musaev, F. A. (1999). Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and the Diffuse Interstellar Bands. A Survey. Astrophys. J. 526, 265-273.)

I am pretty sure dinosaurs and large fern forrests did not exist in the Jovian system those many eons ago - so just maybe this guy has a valid point - or the Earth was slammed with giant comets full of crude back in the day...

Have fun.

[razorback-bert]

drill a well 100 miles into the Earth

It has only take me 4 months to drill 2 miles, so...

[TASMANIANRED]

Screw all the complications.

Take 2 lbs of pinto beans , throw in a ham hock and some onions.

Any Human can convert it into cubic feet of methane in 4-6 hours.

[thoughtomator]

He says it was a slow day on a Friday afternoon when he decided to take some minerals and subject them to enormous pressures and high temperatures.

I have days like that.

[CodeToad]

The only people who want us to believe oil will run out are the ecco-terrorists who think we are killing the planet.

[seastay]

"I expected nothing to happen," he says. "But sure enough, it formed methane. It was a bit of a shock."

Guess he never read his science book where it says this:


"Methane gives Neptune its blue cloud color."

[ChuxsterS]

Inorganic oil & gas ping

[Lady Jag]

We have much more than "experts" say.   Period.   It is ignorant and arrogant to think otherwise.