Prospecting for Oil? Look In an Asteroid Crater

'Cause the craters are easy to find.

http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2005research_calgary/abstracts/extended/mello/mello.htm

Petroleum: To Be Or Not To Be Abiogenic

M. R. Mello1 and J.M. Moldowan1
1 High Resolution Technology & Petroleum. Av. Atlantica 1130, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, 22021-000, E-mail: marcio@hrt.com.br
2 Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2115 USA, and BIOMARKER TECHNOLOGY, 2501 Blucher Valley Road, Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA

Petroleum scientists have always searched for new trustful technologies to provide valuable evidences regarding the origin of hydrocarbons found in sedimentary basins and metamorphic areas around the globe. Present-day analysis of petroleum systems, when performed integrated with direct geochemistry, remote sense and high resolution geochemistry technology (HRGT), can provide irrefutable proof that 99.99999% of all the oil and gas accumulations found up to know in the planet earth have a biologic origin. The technologies can be so accurate and useful that they can predict pre-drilling insights regarding the quality and potential volumes of hydrocarbons to be found, including deep gas reservoirs, oil versus gas prone areas, degree of oil and gas cracking and of mixture of hydrocarbons derived from different sources, from different petroleum systems.

The recent application of those technologies, which consists of a complete characterization of the oil, gas and source rocks using Satellite images, piston core analysis, GC-MS, GC-MS-MS, Diamondoids, CSI-B and CSI-D methods, integrated with detailed geological and geophysical characterization, provide trustful and accurate approaches that allows the explorationists to play under a scenario of biological origin to obtain useful pre-drilling predictions in order to find oil and gas fields. The idea can be old but the practical use of this method is recent and represents an exploration breakthrough in petroleum technology.

The application of this new petroleum technology in petroliferous basins all around the world shows that oils can be attributed to organic-rich sedimentary rocks of specific geological age and depositional environments.

DISCUSSION

The abiogenic origin of petroleum thrived over a period in which scientific knowledge in biology, geology, and chemistry was in the dark ages. Mendeleyev, Kudryavtsev and Porfirev's abiotic evidences was well accepted at the beginning and in the mid-20th century because it offered an explanation for the presence of petroleum deposits in metamorphic rocks of the basement.

With the advances of analytical chemistry, around the fifties, geochemical evidence start to suggest, and latter proved that oils are related to biological precursors (Forsman and Hunt, 1958; Eglinton and Calvin, 1967 and Tissot, 1969). In the late seventies Albrecht, Seifert, Moldowan and Maxwell performed numbered studies that definitively proved the relationship between hydrocarbons and their putative biological precursor, burying the abiogenic hypothesis forever. Unfortunately, Thomas Gold convinced the Swedish Government and some neophyte people, in the nineties, that oil could be found everywhere in the planet, but more specific in an ancient meteorite crater, into fractured granite under the Siljan Ring, in Sweden. For this, two deep wells were drilled and millions of dollars were thrown in the deep earth granite (Gravberg-1 in 1986-1990 and Stenberg-1 in 1991-1992). In such adventure, no hydrocarbon was found and again the abiogenic hypothesis was put in its proper place (Kerr, 1990).

Today, the biogenic theory, which recognizes that all petroleum found in our planet is derived from biological precursors, is well proved and supported by laboratory experiments, in which petroleum composition is shown to reflect that of oil generated from kerogen by pyrolysis.

The application of high resolution biomarker technologies using GC-MS, GC-MS-MS, Diamondoids, CSIA-B and CSIA-D methods, integrated with detailed geological and paleontology cal characterization, provide scientific evidence that that oils can be attributed to organic-rich sedimentary rocks of specific geological age and depositional environments.

Oil samples related to sedimentary rocks of a certain depositional environment and geologic age show biomarkers derived from organisms that are known to have derived from biological precursor that evolved by that time (Figs 1 and 2). For example, oils that can be related to late Cretaceous and Tertiary source rocks generally show Oleanane, which derives from triterpane precursors in angiosperms that evolved and radiated in the Cretaceous and Tertiary, and/or they show the highly branched isoprenoid, which is synthesized by diatoms that evolved and radiated in about the same geologic time-span. Clear examples from major oil-producing basins are Venezuela, Nigeria and California (USA).

Tetracyclic terpanes, such as kaurane, beyerane and phyllocladane occur only in rocks and oils younger than the age of evolution of land plants, i.e., Silurian, because these are biogenic diterpenoid structures that are associated exclusively with hormone (gibberellins) synthesis required by all land plants. Such terrestrially dominated oils that show such compounds can be found widely in China, Southeast Asia, Australia, and in Venezuela. Oil samples that can be tied to early Paleozoic rocks, Cambrian-Devonian often show a unique n-alkane distribution with high odd/even predominance, terminating at n-C19 (Fig.1). This is the biochemical signature that has become identified and attributed to an early Paleozoic alga Gloeocapsamorpha Prisca, and can be found in certain oil habitats in basins of the Central USA, Australia, and Russia. It is also interesting to note that oils derived from marine and lacustrine source rock environments without higher plant influence lack terrestrial plant terpanes and oils derived from terrestrially dominated source rocks lack algally-derived C27 and C30 steranes. Another case, in point, is the presence of â-carotane derived from pigments in halophyllic bacteria that thrive in hypersaline environments, such as the Lagoa Feia source and derived oils of Brazil.

Another irrefutable proof of the biogenic origin of petroleum is the character of diamondoids in all petroleum liquids. One might expect an ultrastable hydrocarbon “non-biomarker” in oil, such as a diamondoid, to have an abiogenic origin. But, alas, it is not the case and it is proven by carbon isotopic composition. Diamonds are invariably formed from abiogenic carbon and, without argument, are abiogenic. They show carbon isotope ratios around 0 to 5 per mil indicating little, if any isotopic fractionation during their formation. However, the structurally related diamondoids in oil show high levels of isotopic fractionation in the range of -20 to -30 per mil, the same as most true biomarkers, indicating diamondoid derivation from enzymatic ally-created lipids with subsequent structural rearrangement during the process of source rock maturation and oil generation.

Application of diamondoid technology in the petroleum basins of the Gulf of Mexico has led to a uniquely detailed understanding of the oil and gas generating systems. Quantitative and isotopic analysis of diamondoid compounds in Mexican oils provide a depth of knowledge of the of the oil and gas biogenic origins, tying them to source ages and ranging from Oxfordian to Miocene in time, and from marine hypersaline to deltaic depositional environments, in which high amounts of higher plants were responsibly for the organic matter (Fig. 2).

REFERENCES

K. E. Peters; C.M. Walters and J. M. Moldowan, 2005. The Biomarker Guide, 2nd Edition, parts 1 and 2, Cambridge University press, 1155p.

And...

http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2005research_calgary/abstracts/extended/dow/dow.htm

The Petroleum System Paradigm and the Biogenic Origin of Oil and Gas

Wallace G. Dow
Consultant, The Woodlands, Texas

The distribution and compositional variations of oil and gas in sedimentary basins can only be explained by its origin in thermally mature, organic-rich source rocks and occasional post-accumulation alteration in the reservoir. This conclusion, based on a very old idea, was confirmed after many decades of research, analysis with modern laboratory instruments and methods and rigorous application of the scientific method. The input of abiogenic hydrocarbons to the oil and gas found in sedimentary basins, if any, is insignificant.

Oil and gas in sedimentary basins is not distributed evenly, but occurs in distinct geographic and stratigraphic trends. The problem at Amoco Research in 1970 was to learn why this is true and whether we could learn how to accurately extend current and predict future productive trends prior to drilling. The Williston Basin was one of the first areas to be studied in detail. We collected 184 oil samples from 107 fields and all of the productive reservoir rocks in the basin and analyzed them with the best analytical techniques available at the time. The oils fell into three major chemically distinct groups (Figure 1) and several minor groups. In an effort to understand where these compositionally different oils came from, we analyzed core samples from all of the organic-rich, non-reservoir rocks in the basin with the same techniques used to study the oils. Each oil group matched to and was closely associated with a different organic-rich interval. The three major oil-rock pairs are isolated from each other by thick salt deposits (Figure 2) and the oils were unmixed and unaltered except beyond the salt depositional edges where inter-group vertical migration was possible. These three major oil-rock pairs were termed “oil systems” and each oil system contained more than enough organic-rich rock volume to account for their related reservoired oils, even at very low generation/accumulation efficiencies. These observations let to the hypothesis that each major oil group was generated in and expelled from a different, chemically distinct, organic-rich source rock. The minor oil groups appeared to be related to limited source rocks in thin, localized, or less organic-rich intervals. There was absolutely no association with basement faulting and it seemed impossible for oil or gas migrating from deep sources to penetrate the regional salt seals. Oil originating in a single source, either biogenic or abiogenic, should exhibit a more uniform composition and not have the profound compositional differences and undeniable organic affinities of the three major Williston Basin oil types.

Corroborating evidence for this hypothesis was provided by further examining the three source rock intervals throughout the Williston Basin. Organic matter in the Bakken Shale, for example, changed systematically in composition between the shallow and deep portions of the basin and contained oil-like organic extracts only below about 5,000 feet near the basin depocenter. Here, the Bakken Shale is overpressured, under compacted and exhibited increased electrical resisitivity on wireline logs, all apparently due to internal oil generation. Cretaceous organic-rich shales were found to be the source of a different type of oil in nearby basins but are shallow and thermally immature in the Williston Basin and have neither generated oil nor are associated with any oil or gas accumulations. These observations led to an additional hypothesis that oil [and gas] source rocks must be subjected to burial heat and pressure in order to convert at least a portion of the organic matter they contain into expellable and oil and gas.

Additional corroborating evidence was obtained from hydrous pyrolysis experiments on immature organic-rich shales that have not yet generated oil or gas. Heating these shales in the laboratory under pressure and in the presence of water formed oil that has properties nearly identical to their naturally generated crude oil counterparts. More advanced analytical techniques such as gc/ms and gc/irms, developed since the initial work was done in 1970, have been used by many researchers to analyze Williston Basin oils and source rocks in considerably more detail, but this new data has changed none of the original conclusions. These techniques also provided additional detailed information on the types of organic matter in each parent source rock and their related oils and showed undeniable organic signatures. These data further corroborated the previous hypotheses and led to confirmation of the scientific theory that oil and gas are formed from thermally mature, organic-rich, sedimentary source rocks. This “biogenic theory” of oil and gas formation is the only theory consistent with all of the observations, analytical data, scientific facts, and experimental results relating to the natural process of oil and gas formation.

The presence of crude oil in fractured basement reservoirs such as those in the South Vietnam Cuu Long Basin is often cited as “proof” that these oils have an abiogenic origin. But detailed geochemical analysis with a host of modern analytical techniques on oils from both Miocene sandstone and fractured basement reservoirs show nearly identical characteristics and correlate well with solvent extracts from Cuu Long Basin Oligocene lacustrine shales. Furthermore, biomarkers in these oils are clearly related to fresh water algae, diatoms, and higher land plants (angiosperms) and it is difficult to imagine how such materials could have found their way into oils with an abiogenic origin. In the Cuu Long Basin, fractured and weathered granite and granodiorite reservoirs occur in up thrown fault blocks that are structurally higher than the immediately adjacent effective Oligocene lacustrine oil source rocks where they were generated. These observations demonstrate that the Cuu Long Basin Oligocene-Basement(!) Petroleum System is quite conventional and to invoke an abiogenic origin for these oils simply because they occur in basement reservoirs ignores abundant scientific evidence to the contrary.

This scientific method approach has been repeated in many sedimentary basins by many researchers, who always arrived at the same conclusions; pooled oil and gas in porous reservoirs can only be explained by it’s origin in thermally mature, organic-rich, sedimentary source rocks. This “biogenic theory” of oil and gas origin subsequently led to the “generative basin” concept and eventually to the “petroleum system” paradigm that is widely used with great success by the petroleum industry today. This paradigm integrates the data and ideas of geology, geophysics, petroleum engineering, mathematical modeling, and geochemistry into the conceptual framework within which most oil and gas exploration is carried out. No other scientific theory has taken the observations and experiments pertaining to the origin of oil and gas from the descriptive to the predictive stage and herein lays its value. Abiogenic hydrocarbons, primarily methane, are certainly present in some parts of the solar system, including planet Earth, but they have nothing whatever to do with the oil, gas, and coal that powers the world’s economy.

I tend to agree. Let's start drilling every where we find the stuff.

L

You got that right.

Where it came from is interesting, because it might tell you where to look next, but the focus is on where it might be now.

No doubt about it.

It may turn out that there is too much oil for our own good

I've said for years that the world is awash with oil.

This reads in the same choppy prose as an intelligent high school junior would write. I really hope that it turns out that oil is a natural product of the earth, and not from decomposed fauna and flora of many bygone eras.

It would be sweet to spin the production of oil as "milk from Mother Gaia's breast", or some such heathen pagan liberal nonsense.

If it was only that easy :)

Thanks. Hopefully, your post will set some of the abiotic Freepers straight.

Innerestin'

Seismic data showing the crater and its concentric ring structure (Image credit:Phil Allen (PGL) and Simon Stewart (BP))

The crater was discovered during analysis of seismic data collected by petroleum geoscientists Simon Stewart of BP and Philip Allen of Production Geoscience Ltd, for a region 130 km off the Humber estuary, during a routine search for fossil fuel deposits. Allen noticed a set of concentric rings, but did not know what they were, and hung an image of them on the wall of his office, hoping someone else might be able to shed light on the mystery. Stewart, visiting Production Geoscience on an unrelated matter, saw the map and suggested it might be an impact crater. The discovery of the crater and the impact hypothesis were reported in the journal Nature in 2002 [1].

The crater currently lies below a layer of sediment up to 1,500 m in depth, which forms the bed of the North Sea at a depth of about 40 m. Studies suggest that at the time of the crater's formation, the area was under 50 to 300 m of water.

http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Silverpit_crater

Oh give it up we all know big asteroid is just another special interest group funding the gop

When I graduated from OU in 1990, we were cross trained for geology and geophysics, and that further cross training continued when I worked for CONOCO. If I am not mistaken, I think was a "staff geoscientest" one, or something like that. Anyway, our college got changed as some point to the College of Geosciences because of all the cross training.

There's an infinite amount of nonsense (eagerly lapped up by the majority of FR, it seems) regarding abiogenic petroleum.

In order to understand why petroleum might actually be produced in the crust of the earth, you have to have a knowledge, at least rudimentary, of physics. First, you have to know where elements other than hydrogen were formed. Then you have to understand what happens to some after they were formed. It is easy to disrespect the theories of others when you don't know what they are talking about.

Basically, all of the elements on earth were formed in stars, either during the active life cycle, for most elements lighter than iron, or during the final seconds of the stars' lives, as in the case of nearly all of the elements heavier than iron. This would include all of the radioactive metals like uranium. Almost all elements heavier than lead are unstable and radioactive. Radioactivity is the process by which elements like uranium and thorium and many others become lighter elements, by throwing off neutrons and protons. All elements heavier than lead are radioactive in some way, and there are also many isotopes of lighter elements that are radioactive in some way. Ever hear of Carbon-14?

In essence, a neutron or a proton is, for all practical purposes, an atom of hydrogen. All that needs to happen with the hyrogen atoms is to find a carbon atom to join up with, and guess what? You have hydrocarbons! Yes, boys and girls, hydrocarbons. One of the simplest hydrocarbons is methane, CH3. It isn't a very long stretch to get to more complex hydrocarbons. Plus, Thomas Gold was a lot smarter than a lot of people who post on Free Republic.

ping for later

Conoco did come up with Vibroseis!

In order to understand why petroleum might actually be produced in the crust of the earth, you have to have a knowledge, at least rudimentary, of physics. First, you have to know where elements other than hydrogen were formed. Then you have to understand what happens to some after they were formed. It is easy to disrespect the theories of others when you don't know what they are talking about.

ROFLMAO!

Basically every abiogenic petroleum fanboy on FR I've run across LITERALLY believes the theory they're arguing against is that oil comes from "dinosaurs" - I'm the last person you should be lecturing on understanding the theories of others.

Noted WingNutDaily author and famed incompetent moron Jerome Corsi even wrote an entire book where he attacked the biological origin of oil while claiming the whole time he was attacking the (non-existent) theory that oil comes from Dinosaurs and not once mentioned the actual accepted biologiocal theory of petroleum, that it comes from ancient microcscopic marine and lacustrine plankton.

It's entirely possible, and indeed there are, hydrocarbons that are not biological in origin.

In the specific case of petroleum on the earth, all of it we drill and refine happens to come from dead plankton and it's all found exactly where you'd expect to find such dead plankton, and it has a chemical composition which clearly indicates it comes from dead plankton.

Did all the dinosaurs in the world herd themselves to the middle east and die there? Oil as a finite product was first introduced as propaganda in the middle of the last century by the big oil companies. So that the public mind would think that we would run out of it and that it would become more and more costly due to it being finite.

Major hydrocarbon field locations and regional bathymetry map of the North West Shelf.

Bedout High impact crater location.

Nice catch!

What is true of Chicxulub, according to Pope, is also true of Bedout High. Becker’s team had previously found traces of shocked quartz from the P/T boundary at Graphite Peak in Antarctica, and Pope had recently found larger grains at Fraser Park in Australia. Although these are only two sites, the pattern they establish closely parallels the pattern for the Chicxulub crater: the larger granules come from Fraser Park, the site that was closer to Bedout at the end of the Permian age; the smaller granules were found in Antarctica, which was much further away. Even more importantly, the size of the granules in the P/T layer diminished with the distance from Bedout at almost exactly the same rate as the granules in the K/T layer diminished with the increasing distance from Chicxulub. This, Pope Argues, is strong evidence that Bedout is the source of the shocked quartz at Permian-Triassic boundary sites...

http://www.planetary.org/news/2004/0514_The_Great_Dying_Does_a_Submerged.html