quote:
He also notes that oil extracted from varying depths from the same oil field have the same chemistry — oil chemistry does not vary as fossils vary with increasing depth. Also interesting is the fact that oil is found in huge quantities among geographic formations where assays of prehistoric life are not sufficient to produce the existing reservoirs of oil. Where then did it come from
This suggests to me that the author of this article thinks that the oil is where it was formed. I was taught otherwise a long time ago. It wouldn't be in highly localized places that are of just the right form to trap it if that was true.
Because of the mixing we wouldn't expect there to be an age/depth correlation that the article suggests.
The article supplies no primary references. I am very suspicious of that.
If the "traping" mechanism is correct as I recall it then the possibility of refilling becomes fairly obvious and I don't understand why it is such a mystery. But then I'm not an oil geologist.
The WSJ article referenced is 1999. There was money allocated for funding research into this. I keep up with a range of things. Any further progress on this has escaped my notice. Do we have anything more up-to-date? It seems there are some interesting speculations here but nothing more.
Again no primary references are given.
My crank-o-meter wiggles when I note that a lot of money is involved here: Hundreds of billions. And this sinks without any particular splash 5 years later?
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