Life After the Oil Crash

[Nitrus]

I think you should read this:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Really opens your eyes....

-N

[PittsburghAfterDark]

For every site like that I can produce another on abiotic oil that states the planet is constantly producing petroleum and the "peak oil" theory is complete bull puckey supported by environmentalists to support their agenda and embraced by oil companies as a means of defending prices.

Petroleum under pressure

14 September 2004

Scientists in the US have witnessed the production of methane under the conditions that exist in the Earth's upper mantle for the first time. The experiments demonstrate that hydrocarbons could be formed inside the Earth via simple inorganic reactions -- and not just from the decomposition of living organisms as conventionally assumed -- and might therefore be more plentiful than previously thought.

Methane is the most abundant hydrocarbon found in the Earth's crust and is also the main component of natural gas. Reserves of natural gas are often accompanied by petrol, usually only a few kilometres below the Earth's surface. The possibility that hydrocarbons might exist deeper in the Earth's mantle, or could be formed from non-biological matter, has been the subject of debate among geologists in recent years.

To explore these questions further Henry Scott of Indiana University in South Bend and colleagues at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, Harvard University and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab subjected materials commonly found in the Earth's crust to temperatures of up to 1500°C and pressures as high as 11 gigapascals (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. to be published). These conditions are similar to those found in the Earth's upper mantle.

The set-up

Scott and co-workers squeezed together iron oxide, calcium carbonate and water between two diamonds with flattened tips while heating up the device. The advantage of the "diamond anvil cell" technique is that the sample can be analysed in situ -- through the diamonds -- using a variety of spectroscopic techniques. The US scientists found that methane was most readily produced at relatively low temperatures of 500°C and pressures of 7 gigapascals or below.

The sample

In 2002 J F Kenney of Gas Resources Corporation in Texas and co-workers in Moscow found methane and other hydrocarbons in similar experiments. However, their apparatus did not allow them to follow the formation process in situ (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99 10976).

Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton believes the results are important because they could help answer the question of whether natural gas and petroleum could be created inorganically. "If the answer turns out to be inorganic, this has huge implications for the ecology and economy of our planet," says Dyson.

However, Scott is more cautious about his team's results. "Although I believe the Earth's mantle could contain a significant quantity of even heavier hydrocarbons, I cannot constrain how much of this reaches the Earth's surface, or the extent to which it may augment resources that we exploit commercially," he told PhysicsWeb. "I do not want to suggest in any way that these hydrocarbons are likely to represent an untapped energy reserve."

About the author

Belle Dumé is Science Writer at PhysicsWeb
Physicsweb.org (http://www.physicsweb.org/articles/news/8/9/9/1)

[Hendrik]

The linked Homepage is so propaganda like. :lol:

I predict:
In 2030 only 10% of the current oil production will still be needed. There wont be any oil crash.

Sweden wants to become the world's first oil free economy by 2020:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1704937,00.html

Germany is beginning to replace "classic" fuel by synthetic fuel made of biomass right now.

Go sell your oil company shares.

Hendrik

[Mayberry]

I predict:
In 2030 only 10% of the current oil production will still be needed. There wont be any oil crash. I agree with that. Hopefully this time folks are serious about alternative fuels. I also believe that petroleum is probably being produced constantly. It came to be to begin with, why would the process not continue somewhere? I can see methane being produced in my own back yard. The predominant southeast wind constantly piles up seagrass on the shore. As grass decomposes in the shallow bay here it gets heated by the sun, and the water bubbles like Coca Cola. Stinks like crazy. It's producing methane on the spot! Tons of it! Now who's to say that after thousands of years of that southeast wind piling grass on the same shore that millions of tons of it haven't been buried deep and are turning into oil in it's own pressure cooker? Sounds plausible to me. Anyway, lots of petroluem products can now be produced synthetically, and technology is advancing every day, so eventually petroleum will be phased out. I wish I had that Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future:D