Did you every wonder why one small area of the planet, Saudi Arabia, has roughly 25% of the earth’s oil reserves, half of which is in only eight fields. (See wikipedia article below.)
The “Non Organic Theory of Oil Formation” or "abiogenic petroleum origin" is an interesting theory that originated in Russia and was revived by the astronomer Thomas Gold. The following is a short quote from a wikipedia article, that discusses the theory.
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The theory of abiogenic petroleum origin holds that natural petroleum was formed from deep carbon deposits, perhaps dating to the formation of the Earth. The ubiquity of hydrocarbons in the solar system is taken as evidence that there may be a great deal more petroleum on Earth than commonly thought and that petroleum may originate from carbon-bearing fluids which migrate upward from the mantle.
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I have been following the development and discussion of the theory from an economic impact standpoint, a scientific standpoint, and from an energy reserves standpoint.
Reserves Standpoint
The Russian’s have drilled the deepest gas wells on the planet and have found “natural gas” at depths were organic methane is believed not to have formed. Following the Russian’s example, North Americans have also drilled and found natural gas at very great depths. It seems that there is significantly more "natural gas" available in the planet. (Remember that 70% of the planet's surface is covered with water.) I have heard some work that notes the earth's crust is different at high latitudes and that there may be great amounts of natural gas at those latitudes.
Commercial Standpoint
At the turn of the millennia there was a key meeting in Switzerland, noted in the magazine “The Economist” of large oil investors to discuss the Abiogenic theory’s implication on oil prices. Obviously, either the secret must still be in the bag or the theory is not correct, as oil prices have continued to climb.
Scientific Standpoint
From an astrophysics standpoint the abiogenic theory seems quite plausible. Obviously carbon and hydrogen are very plentiful, in the solar system. It would seem reasonable that the early earth could have had large amounts of hydrocarbons trapped in the earth’s surface.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
Excerpt from this wikipedia article on Oil Reserves
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves
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Saudi Arabia reports it has 262 gigabarrels of proven oil reserves (65 years of future production), around a quarter of proven, conventional world oil reserves. Although Saudi Arabia has around 80 oil and gas fields, more than half of its oil reserves are contained in only eight fields, and more than half its production comes from one field, the Ghawar field.
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