Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Historic planetary instability and catastrophe. Evidence for electrical scarring on planets and moons. Electrical events in today's solar system. Electric Earth.

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Chromium6
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:58 pm

That's a lot of dead dinosaurs (and no this isn't a personal attempt to "short" LPG futures):
Gas-in-Place

In September 2011 Cuadrilla announced its Gas-in-Place findings. We estimate that there is 200 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural Gas in Place in the Bowland shale.

This estimate was a result of considerable scientific analysis of findings from our exploration work, which included taking samples from the shale rock during drilling and from flow-back analysis after hydraulic fracturing. Our geologists and technicians are experts in their field and have arrived at this estimation following careful analysis of the available data.
http://www.cuadrillaresources.com/what- ... tural-gas/


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Venezuela tiene 200 TCF de gas natural

Hugo Chávez espera que su país sea una potencia mundial en reservas.

La Razón / EFE - Caracas

00:45 / 07 de agosto de 2012

http://www.la-razon.com/economia/Venezu ... 33617.html
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Categor ... eId=391077


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Reserve estimates

The United States Geological Survey had estimated that the Marcellus contained only 54 km3 (1.9×1012 cu ft) (where x1012 = trillion, and is referred to as 1.9 TCF) of technically recoverable natural gas in a 2002 publication.[124] In April 2009, the United States Department of Energy estimated the Marcellus to contain 262 TCF of recoverable gas.[125]

State University of New York at Fredonia geology professor Gary Lash has calculated that more than 14,000 km3 (4.9×1014 cu ft) (490 TCF) of natural gas may be contained in the Marcellus black shale beds that lie between New York state and West Virginia.[126] At the present level of technology, he believes approximately 10% of this – 1,400 km3 (4.9×1013 cu ft) (49 TCF) – could be recovered.[126] This is enough to satisfy approximately two years' of total U.S. consumption,[124] or a total value of two hundred billion dollars at winter 2010 – spring 2011 wellhead prices. That figure is part of an increase of as much as approximately one trillion United States dollars in the value of all recoverable reserves in the US attributable to improved recovery through vertical drilling and fracking.[21]

In 2008, Terry Engelder, a Pennsylvania State University geosciences professor called his estimate of 4.8 trillion cubic metres (170 trillion cubic feet) conservative.[124] In November 2008, based on drilling results, Engelder increased his estimate of the amount of natural gas in the Marcellus to 363 trillion cubic feet (10.3 trillion cubic metres) of recoverable resource, which would be enough to supply U.S. consumption for at least fourteen years.[127] That estimate assumed some acreage in the Marcellus would not be gas bearing. If the entire formation did contain gas, Engelder said the formation could contain 4,359 TCF. Assuming a 30% recovery rate, this would lead to a 1,307 TCF.[128]

According to the Financial Post, the boom in US shale oil production, using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, created thousands of jobs and reduced United States dependence on imported gas.[129] In 2008 there was a natural gas drilling boom [130] in the Fort Worth Basin of the Barnett Shale formation in north Texas,[131] which is similar to the Marcellus shale formation, produced strong drilling results.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, GOP Primary Candidate Rick Perry cited a study funded by the Marcellus Shale Coalition that fracking the Marcellus Formation is expected to create a quarter million jobs under the current policies of the Obama administration.[132]

To extract the shale gas at more commercially viable rates,[21] directional drilling is done to depths of 7,000 to 10,000 ft (2,100 to 3,000 m) underground to reach the formation, and then water and a mixture of chemicals is pumped into the rock under high pressure in a process known as hydraulic fracturing to release the gas from the low permeability shale.[133] Although hydraulic fracturing has been used since the middle of the 20th century, its use in horizontal wells in laterally extensive shale formations was perfected around the turn of the 21st century outside Fort Worth, Texas to tap the reserves in the Barnett Formation shales of the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin, that are now the most prolific source of unconventional gas in the continental United States.[124] The Marcellus covers several times more area,[134] stretching 600 miles (970 km), compared to a linear extent of only 170 miles (270 km) for the Barnett.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_ ... atural_Gas (good site coverage... btw)

iGas Vastly Increases UK Shale Gas Estimates to 170 Trillion Cubic Feet
By James Burgess | Mon, 03 June 2013 21:44

The energy company iGas, has increased its estimates of shale gas in the UK after a recent study suggests that there may be between 15 and 170 trillion cubic feet of shale gas buried in a 300 square mile are of Cheshire.

The most likely volume is around 102 trillion, still far more than the 9 trillion cubic feet initially predicted, and enough to supply the UK with years of energy, and reduce its imports. The UK currently uses around 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year.

After restrictions on hydraulic fracturing activities were lifted last December, some energy firms have been eagerly exploring the shale potential in the UK. Andrew Austin, the Chief Executive Officer of iGas, said that his companies “licenses have a very significant shale gas resource with the potential to transform the company and materially benefit the communities in which we operate.”

Related article: POLAND: Shale Tax Policy Delay, Little Appeasement for Investors

In 2011, Cuadrilla, a rival shale gas firm operating in the UK, estimated that it owned roughly 200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, with the CEO Mark Miller claiming that around 10-30% of those resources would actually be extracted.

Green groups remain suspicious of the early estimates being released by shale companies around the UK, and warn that no one should get excited about the country’s shale potential just yet. Doug Parr, a chief scientist and policy director from Greenpeace, warned that “deciding how much gas there is based on the word of a shale gas firm is like buying a second-hand car without lifting up the bonnet and asking the price. iGas may be keen to impress its investors in China but these figures are just hype. The world's largest oil and gas firms were attracted to Poland by similar claims - now they are rushing to leave.”

iGas has announced that it will begin exploratory drilling later in the year in an attempt to gather more accurate data on the volume of shale gas available to them.
By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/ ... -Feet.html

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Cyprus May Have 60 Trillion Cubic Feet of Gas, Kretyk Head Says
By Georgios Georgiou - 2013-03-15T16:37:22Z

Cyprus’s natural gas reserves in its territorial waters could be as much as 60 trillion cubic feet, the head of the country’s state hydrocarbons company said.

The country has already granted licenses for exploratory drilling in six blocks that could contain as much as 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Charalambos Ellinas, chairman of Kretyk, as the company is known, in Nicosia today.

Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) will begin exploratory drilling in block 12 of the Economic Exclusion Zone, which has reserves of as much as 8 trillion cubic feet, in the third quarter, Commerce and Industry Minister George Lakkotrypis said on March 13.

Cyprus has so far given gas exploration licenses to Noble, Total SA (FP) and a venture of Eni SpA (ENI) and Korea Gas Corp. (036460)

To contact the reporter on this story: Georgios Georgiou in Athens at ggeorgiou5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Maria Petrakis at mpetrakis@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-1 ... -says.html

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In recent years, several trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas have been added to the confirmed 10.5 TCF known as of 1996. Due to the fact that there has been comparatively little exploration to date, estimates of the total extractable natural gas resource in Bangladesh are uncertain and vary widely. An estimate of 20 TCF is gaining acceptance among experts, but some argue that experiences in comparable basins elsewhere in the world suggest that the ultimate recoverable resource could be as high as 50 TCF or even 100 TCF.

At the current rate of natural gas use in Bangladesh (1000 mmcfd), the current estimated proven reserves would last 45 years. Even if the present rate of use increases at 10 per cent per year, these reserves would last about 17 years. A reserve-production Reserves-to-production ratio of 17 is higher than that for most industrial countries heavily dependent on natural gas, examples being Norway, Canada, U.S., and U.K. Here only the R/P ratio of gas is being considered for comparison. Relative to Bangladesh, these industrial countries have more diverse indigenous energy sources such as coal, oil and nuclear. The U.S. still uses coal to produce more than half its electricity.

There are huge resources of gas in Bangladesh. Places where gas is commercially refines include: Titas, Habiganj, Bakhrabad, Narshingdi, Meghna, Sylhet, Kailashtilla, Rashidpur, Beanibazar, Fenchuganj and Salda Nadi.

In 2001, Petrobangla Director Major Raihanul Abedin initiated the national plan to decrease the use of using liquid fuels, by introducing natural gas conversion. He thought if cars could be converted to use cooking gas instead of rather harmful fuels, the carbon emission would decrease exponentially. He was given the permission by the Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to carry out his plans.[1][2] As a result, Asian Development Bank funded his scheme and today more than 80% of Bangladeshi vehicles are run on gas which has lessened pollution significantly.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_in_Bangladesh

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Mozambique’s Gas Reserves Could Reach 250 Trillion Cubic Feet

By Bloomberg On April 10, 2013


Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique, image courtesy Spot Image S.A, all rights reserved

April 10 (Bloomberg) — Tanzania sees natural-gas reserves more than doubling by early 2015 from the 40 trillion cubic feet discovered by companies including Statoil ASA, as the country prepares to offer new exploration blocks as early as September.

“We have enormous amounts of gas,” Energy and Minerals Minister Sospeter Muhongo said in an interview yesterday in Oslo. “We are now at 40 tcf and I’m sure in the next two years we should be at more than a 100 tcf.”

Statoil, Norway’s biggest energy company, last month raised estimates for discoveries in Tanzania’s Block 2 to as much as 13 trillion cubic feet of recoverable resources, enough to build a liquefied natural gas plant with Britain’s BG Group Plc. The U.K. company has found 10 trillion cubic feet in neighboring blocks. Statoil said drilling on two to three new prospects may yield “high-impact” finds in 2013, defined as discoveries with reserves of more than 250 million barrels of oil equivalent.

More than 100 trillion cubic feet have been found in the area including neighbouring Mozambique, where Eni SpA made the biggest gas discovery of the decade. Mozambique may have 250 trillion cubic feet of reserves, according to the country’s state-backed company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos.

Tanzania will offer exploration permits between September and November, Muhongo said, after the country delayed a planned licensing round for nine blocks in September last year. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp. will decide on a date for the round, he said, without giving the number of blocks to be awarded.

- Mikael Holter, Copyright 2013 Bloomberg.
http://gcaptain.com/mozambiques-reserve ... -trillion/


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Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of Papua-New Guinea, eastern Indonesia, and East Timor, 2011
We estimated means of 5.8 billion barrels of oil and 115 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas in this area using a geology-based assessment methodology.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3029/
http://www.usgs.gov/science/author.php? ... istopher+J.

Assessment of undiscovered, conventional oil and gas resources of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, 2012
We estimated means of 19 billion barrels of oil and 83 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas resources in 10 geologic provinces of this area using a geology-based assessment methodology.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3069/

Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of North Africa, 2012
We estimated means of 19 billion barrels of technically recoverable undiscovered conventional oil and 370 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered conventional natural gas resources in this area using a geology-based assessment methodology.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3147/

Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the North Caspian Basin, Middle Caspian Basin, North Ustyurt Basin, and South Caspian Basin Provinces, Caspian Sea Area, 2010
We estimated mean volumes of technically recoverable, conventional, undiscovered petroleum resources at 19.6 billion barrels of crude oil, 243 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 9.3 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3094/

Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of six geologic provinces of China
We estimated mean volumes of undiscovered conventional resources in this area at 14.9 billion barrels of oil, 87.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.4 billion barrels of natural-gas liquids using a geology-based assessment methodology.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3117/

Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of South America and the Caribbean, 2012


We estimated means of 126 billion barrels of oil and 679 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas in 31 geologic provinces of South America and the Caribbean using a geology based assessment methodology.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3046/

(That's a lot of ancient growth at the very top of the planet... hmmm???? Now how did that come to be? )

Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the Arctic Circle
90 billion barrels of oil, 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids may remain to be found in the Arctic, of which approximately 84 percent is expected to occur in offshore areas.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3049/

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An estimate of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of the world, 2012
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, we estimated means of 565 billion barrels of conventional oil and 5,606 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered conventional natural gas in 171 priority geologic provinces of the world, exclusive of the U.S.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3042/

Table 1. Comparison of the 2011 and 2013 reports ARI report coverage
2011 Report 2013 Report
Number of countries 32 41
Number of basins 48 95
Number of formations 69 137

Technically recoverable resources, including U.S.
Shale gas (trillion cubic feet) 6,622 7,299
Shale / tight oil (billion barrels) 32 345
http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/
Last edited by Chromium6 on Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:36 pm

Turkey looks to realize its huge shale gas potential

19 June 2013

Turkey, encouraged by the research showing the country might have huge potential particularly around Central and Southeastern Anatolia and Thrace, aims to increase production of shale gas.

ANKARA -- Turkey has appeared to accelerate its local energy exploration and production activities, specifically in local shale gas.

“Many have said there is huge potential of shale gas reserves in Turkey, specifically in the Central Anatolian cities of Ankara, Konya and Nevşehir, although it is not feasible to give accurate figures about the reserves before the completion of our exploration activities. We have already undertaken a series of shale gas exploration activities around Turkey, for example we have been drilling below 3,000 meters with Shell in the eastern city of Diyarbakır, and planning such activities in the Thrace Basin,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said yesterday during the share and operations transfer ceremony of the 600 megawatt (MW) Seyitömer thermal power plant.

Shell and Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) began exploring for shale gas in the eastern province of Diyarbakır’s Sarıbuğday-1 natural gas field in September 2012.

The Southeast Anatolia Basin in southern Turkey and the Thrace Basin in western Turkey have active shale oil and gas exploration underway by TPAO and several international companies, according to the latest report by the U.S.-based Energy Information Agency (EIA), as reported by daily Hürriyet. There may also be shale gas resources in the Sivas and Salt Lake basins. However, only limited reservoir data are available for these two lightly explored basins, the report said.

The EIA estimated that the Dadaş Shale in the Southeast Anatolian Basin and the Hamitabat Shale in the Thrace Basin contain 163 trillion cubic feet (tcf) (4.6 trillion cubic meters) of risked shale gas in-place, with 24 tcf (651 bcm) as the risked, technically recoverable shale gas resource. In addition, they estimate that these two shale basins also contain 94 billion barrels of risked shale oil in-place, with 4.7 billion barrels as the risked, technically recoverable shale oil resource.

Costly and complex

Turkey could meet 14 years of its gas demand by using the technically recoverable shale gas resource, 651 bcm, estimated in the report.

Natural gas currently provides 21 percent of global energy supplies, according to energy experts. There had been about 50 to 60 years’ worth of gas supply globally until a couple of years ago, but now it is believed there is minimum of a 200-year supply arising from discoveries of shale gas.

This appears to be great news for the world, which has been increasingly more addicted to energy resources.

“The EIA report indicates a significant potential for international [shale oil and] shale gas, around 7,299 tcf, but extracting shale gas is more costly and complex than extracting conventional gas.

Environmental concerns in global shale development are another issue. The drilling technique has already been banned in France and will likely face opposition in other countries due to its negative environmental impacts,” a senior energy expert told the Hürriyet Daily News.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/15211 ... ntial.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:44 pm

Still another recent discovery:
Newly-discovered Qatar natural gas field estimated at 5.2 trillion cubic feet

Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Qatar has reported the discovery of a major natural gas
reserve.


Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada said the Gulf
Cooperation Council emirate confirmed the largest offshore gas field since
1971.

Al Sada said the discovery, estimated to contain 5.2 trillion cubic
feet, was located at the North-4 offshore block near the North Field.

“The discovery of the gas field comes after four years of intensive
exploration work, including the drilling of exploratory wells,” Al Sada told
a news conference on March 10.

The discovery was achieved by a consortium that included Germany’s
Wintershall and Mitsui Gas Development Qatar.

Qatar, with proven gas reserves of 890 trillion cubic feet, contains 13 percent of global reserves.
http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/03/11/ ... ubic-feet/
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Aardwolf
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Aardwolf » Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:52 am

I guess the UK must have been the dinosaur capital of the world as the British Geological Society recently reported an estimate of 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the Bowland are alone. Their upper estimate of 2,300 tcf is almost as mush as the entire reserve of US shale gas; all in a single field. The offshore shale gas could be 10 times as much.

Chromium6
Posts: 537
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:24 pm

Aardwolf wrote:I guess the UK must have been the dinosaur capital of the world as the British Geological Society recently reported an estimate of 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the Bowland are alone. Their upper estimate of 2,300 tcf is almost as mush as the entire reserve of US shale gas; all in a single field. The offshore shale gas could be 10 times as much.
Yes Aardwolf, just a thought -- to calculate the amount of "Carbon" from living organisms both aquatic and land since say 1.5 Billion years ago, and then to extrapolate that calculation out for the millions/billions/trillions of cubic feet for NG and billions of barrels of oil -- that would equate to a lot of dead algae that likely had to sit dead miles high for a couple 100 million years and then find its way 5,000+ feet underground where it was then purified even more under heat and pressure for millions of years. This traditional model for the carbon cycle for creating NG/Oil/Oil Shale seems to be missing some key pieces to allow for that amount of organic carbon from "above" unless several cataclysmic events occurred over the last 1 Billion years that just deposited it all non-organically. Or it came from "below" as Kerogen.

Here's another large US oil find:
-----------------------------
For Better or Worse, Big Oil has Big U.S. Future

By Daniel J. Graeber | Sun, 07 July 2013 00:00

Oil major Shell announced it drilled into a discovery in the Gulf of Mexico that is estimated to hold as much as 100 million barrels of oil equivalent. Shell made the discovery while drilling in its Vicksburg exploratory well in deep waters near an area thought to contain five times the amount of the recent find. That's good news for a U.S. economy looking to buffer itself against turmoil overseas. The recent crisis in Egypt helped pushed oil prices to record levels for the year. It's bad news, however, in the era of the low-carbon economy.

Shell said the oil find in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico measured more than 500 feet thick, a sizable amount by industry standards. The company said the find, located about 75 miles offshore, adds to the 500 million barrels of oil equivalent appraised at the company's nearby Appomattox discovery.

"The results of the Vicksburg well strengthen our existing deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration portfolio and should contribute to the nearby Appomattox discovery," upstream director Mark Shuster said.


http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Fo ... uture.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

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viscount aero
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by viscount aero » Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:40 pm

In light of all of this evidence it would appear that oil and natural gas are replenished continually by natural processes deep within the crust and perhaps below. But a scarcity paradigm seems to be the popular "fact" as to not upset the geopolitical establishment's agenda.

Chromium6
Posts: 537
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:31 pm

viscount aero wrote:In light of all of this evidence it would appear that oil and natural gas are replenished continually by natural processes deep within the crust and perhaps below. But a scarcity paradigm seems to be the popular "fact" as to not upset the geopolitical establishment's agenda.
Yes, indeed viscount aero. I'm suspecting the Electric Universe is a replenishable hydro-carbon generator of sorts.

Here's some more "evidence" just today. These discoveries are mostly "backpage" news... but in aggregate they tell a different story than what the oil market makers hear:

Kuwait discovers oil, gas field

Updated 2013-07-16 07:48:42

KUWAIT CITY, July 15: The Gulf state of Kuwait has discovered a new oil and gas field in Kabed area close to the well-known Manageesh oilfield, Hashem Sayed Hashem, CEO of state-owned Kuwait Oil Co said on Monday.

Hashem gave no estimates of the reserves in the field located in western Kuwait but told the official KUNA news agency that more details would be released at a later date. OPEC member Kuwait is pumping around 3 million barrels per day of oil and says it has about 100 billion barrels of crude reserves although the figure had been questioned in the past.

The emirate has earmarked around $100bn to be invested over the next five years on several oil projects like building a large refinery and upgrading two existing ones.—AFP
Here's Total Coal Reserves that can be added in as well:

http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title= ... e_Reserves
http://www.worldcoal.org/resources/coal-statistics/
Table 2: World Energy Council estimates of proved recoverable reserves (hard coal and lignite) at end-2008 (Billion Metric Tons)
Region Recoverable Reserves Share of Recoverable Reserves
US and Canada 243.9 28.3%
Russian Federation 157.0 18.2%
China 114.5 13.3%
Europe (incl. Turkey) 110.4 12.8%
Australia 76.4 8.9%
India 60.6 7.0%
Kazakhstan 33.6 3.9%
South Africa 30.2 3.5%
All Other 34.3 4.0%
World Total 860.9 100%
http://dawn.com/news/1029316/kuwait-dis ... -gas-field

Related to aero's point above. ;)
OPEC aims to maintain production levels that keep prices from falling below $100 a barrel.

OPEC last cut its oil output in late 2008, when it reduced production by 4.2 million barrels a day. At the time, oil demand fell and prices crashed amid the financial crisis.

Last week’s report said a drop in demand for OPEC crude will coincide with a surge in oil supply from countries outside of the group. Non-OPEC crude is expected to grow by 1.1 million to 1.3 million barrels a day next year, rising at a faster clip than global demand.

Despite anticipated pressure from US shale oil, OPEC may opt against cutting production if oil prices remain above $100 a barrel, the first delegate told the Journal.

On Thursday, the IEA estimated the need for OPEC crude would be just 28.85 million barrels a day in the first half of 2014, and about 29.4 million barrels a day for the whole year. Some of this demand could also be satisfied by drawing oil out of inventories, the IEA said.

The drop in demand for OPEC crude will come as oil supply from countries outside the group, estimated to grow by between 1.1 million barrels a day and 1.3 million barrels a day in 2014, rises faster than global demand.

World oil prices fell on Monday on news of an economic slowdown in top global energy consumer China, analysts said.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August slipped 60 cents to stand at $108.21 a barrel in London midday deals.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August, dipped 67 cents to $105.28 compared with Friday’s closing level.

“Crude oil prices slid lower on Monday, opening the week on the negative side, as disappointing Chinese economic data hurt market sentiment and limited risk appetite, prompting investors to lock in recent gains,” said Kash Kamal at Sucden brokers.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cf ... 0716173709
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Thu Jul 18, 2013 5:29 pm

Looks like Ultra-deep fields are coming into play. Sorry for the bad-grammar on a previous post. I was drinking and distracted (http://www.cutekorean.net/ -Chromium).
Rio de Janeiro: The Libra deepwater oil field that Brazil plans to auction off Oct 21 will yield minimum output of 1 million barrels of crude per day, the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said Friday.

That production would be equivalent to half of Brazil's current output of 2 million bpd.

The consortium that is awarded the right to develop the Libra prospect will likely need to drill for about four years after signing its production-sharing agreement, with commercial production likely to begin in the fifth year, ANP Director-General Magda Chambriard told a press conference in Rio de Janeiro.

ANP studies indicate that between 12 and 18 production platforms will be needed to develop Libra, whose recoverable oil is estimated at between 8 billion and 12 billion barrels, nearly equivalent to Brazil's current proven-reserve base of 14 billion barrels.

Libra, located some 183 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state in an area of the Atlantic Ocean where water depths range from between 1,700 meters and 2,400 meters, will be the first pre-salt field to be auctioned off by Brazil.

The pre-salt frontier, a series of ultra-deep oil fields that were discovered in recent years and stretch for some 800 km off the coasts of the southeastern states of Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina, could dramatically increase Brazil's proven-reserve tally and transform the country into a major crude exporter.

But accessing those fields, so-named because they are located under water, rocks and a shifting layer of salt at depths of up to 7,000 meters below the surface of the Atlantic, will be very costly and pose an enormous technical challenge.
http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/ ... 79786.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

trevbus
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Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by trevbus » Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:33 pm

viscount aero wrote:In light of all of this evidence it would appear that oil and natural gas are replenished continually by natural processes deep within the crust and perhaps below. But a scarcity paradigm seems to be the popular "fact" as to not upset the geopolitical establishment's agenda.
Even if oil is abiotic, there is no reason why the planet would manufacture it fast enough to keep up with our consumption. The evidence for oil depletion is overwhelming. We are using up the stuff too quickly. Our rate of production will decline, whether that is to a steady state, or zero. Peak Oil is unavoidable.

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:58 pm

Well with billions of people in Asia (India, China, Indonesia, etc.) jumping on the "Energy" bus... it looks like things are getting a bit crowded but there is still breathing room:

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China Holds Massive Natural Gas Shale Reserves [2011-4-11]

According to a recent report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) there is an estimated 5,760 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas located in shale rock formations within 32 countries around the world.

China has the largest reserves of countries examined in the study. It is estimated that China holds 1,275 Tcf. in shale based natural gas reserves.

China is gaining experience in shale gas production through operations in the United States. The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has recently acquired U.S. shale gas reserves. CNOOC has purchased interest in the shale gas operations in Colorado, Wyoming, and the Eagle Ford shale in Texas from Chesapeake Energy.

In addition to China, the report concludes the existence of large shale gas reserves in Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, France, Poland, and Canada.

The report did not include Russia and countries within Central Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Central Africa.



(Naturalgasinvesting,Apr 10,2011)
http://www.energychinaforum.com/news/49221.shtml


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The report above didn't include East Africa but this story gives a hint of what is there:

Africa Gas Rush Imperils $100 Billion in Australian LNG

By Eduard Gismatullin & James Paton - 2012-08-30

....

Anadarko Talks

Still, “as I look at East Africa, I look at the maturity of oil and gas regulations, the lack of infrastructure, and my view is some of those projects probably won’t come on as quickly as people think they will,” Woodside Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman said in an Aug. 23 interview in Sydney.

Shell and Total have been in talks with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and Eni SpA (ENI) about buying into gas fields discovered off Mozambique with more than 100 trillion cubic feet (2.8 trillion cubic meters) of gas resources, enough to meet Asian demand for almost five years.

There are still 95 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves yet to be discovered in Mozambique and Tanzania, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said Aug. 22. “There is clearly plenty of gas to supply the likely commercialization route of LNG -- theoretically enough to support up to 16 LNG trains.”

There will be risks to developing LNG projects in East Africa, where there’s no history of large-scale oil and gas production and roads and airports are often relatively poor.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-2 ... n-lng.html
http://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/wood ... cf-of-gas/

Regional Report - Offshore Africa: Following the discovery of Jubilee field, operators are chasing Upper Cretaceous, pre-salt and deep horizon opportunities in West Africa and significant gas accumulations offshore East Africa.

Lydia Thevanayagam, Thom Allen and Alex Elliot

The vast African continent is considered to have some of the last remaining hydrocarbon frontiers in the world. Excluding North African countries such as Egypt, Algeria and Libya, and the Sub-Saharan Africa countries of Nigeria, Angola and Gabon, where exploration has been ongoing for decades, exploration in the rest of the continent has been minimal. This article looks at frontier offshore exploration in three key regions: Gulf of Guinea, West Africa pre-salt and East Africa. Each of the focus regions has its own unique geology and circumstances that have led to increasing levels of interest. In the frontier Gulf of Guinea, moving westwards from Benin to Sierra Leone, operators are chasing Upper Cretaceous Jubilee-type plays along the West African Transform Margin (WATM). Jubilee’s great success has encouraged oil companies to gain a foothold and explore some of the most frontier countries in Africa such as Benin, Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. West Africa is the most explored sub-region in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the production histories of Nigeria, Angola and Gabon extending back into the 1950s. Operators are now looking to deeper horizons and pre-salt exploration, which, until recent improvements in seismic data, had been difficult to image through the thick layers of salt deposited during the breakup of Gondwana and the creation of the southern Atlantic sediments.

http://www.worldoil.com/August-2012-Reg ... frica.html

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Gas pivotal to Nigeria’s industrial development, say stakeholders
Thursday, 31 January 2013 00:00 FEMI ASU

Nigeria is said to have the largest gas reserves in Africa, ranking seventh in the world with about 187 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves and 300,600 Tcf of unproven gas reserves, but stakeholders are concerned that not much of it has been tapped into for industrial development and the transformation of the nation’s economy.

In 2008, the Nigerian Gas Master-Plan was inaugurated to grow the Nigerian economy with gas by pursuing three key strategies: stimulate the multiplier effect of gas in the domestic economy, position Nigeria competitively in high value export markets and guarantee the long-term energy security of Nigeria.

Stakeholders have identified inadequate gas infrastructure and the delay in passing the long-anticipated Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as major challenges militating against the growth of the gas sub-sector.
http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/ind ... akeholders
Natural gas

Although Congo holds the fifth-largest proven natural gas reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa, only a small portion is marketed, as a vast majority is reinjected or flared.

Congo holds the fifth-largest proven reserves of natural gas in Sub-Saharan Africa at 3.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), according to OGJ. The country's gross natural gas production was 334 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2011, although only 15 percent (51 Bcf) was marketed. A majority of the natural gas, 68 percent (228 Bcf), was reinjected to boost oil production. The remaining 17 percent (55 Bcf) was flared or vented. Due to the lack of gas infrastructure, only 41 Bcf of dry natural gas was domestically consumed.
http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=CF
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:55 pm

This report covers NG in Africa.

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAsset ... Africa.pdf

Table 1. African natural gas

Billion cubic meters
Total 14,264
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Sun Jul 21, 2013 5:17 pm

Here's Iran's new big discovery in 2012 reported Jan. 2013.

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Iran discovers 14 billion barrels of crude oil reserves
Last year, Iran discovered 20 billion barrels of crude oil reserves.

Mon Jan 21, 2013 5:24PM
Iran has discovered 14 billion barrels of crude oil reserves during the first three quarters of the current Persian calendar year (started March 20, 2012), an Iranian deputy oil minister says.


In a Monday interview, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr noted that during the previous Iranian year (ended March 19, 2012), the country discovered 20 billion barrels of crude oil.

“A total of 14 billion barrels of crude oil reserves has been also discovered in the first nine months of the current year,” he added.

The official pointed to Iran’s 300-percent progress in discovery of oil and natural gas resources and noted that the oil ministry is currently ahead of its discovery plans.
“Even in the absence of new discoveries, Iran will be capable of producing oil for the next 140 years,” Khojasteh-Mehr pointed out.

Iran holds the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves.
The country's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra-heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.
ASH/SS/MA
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/21 ... ls-of-oil/

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Looks like a few more decades until another "source" is found:
July's issue of E&P Magazine looks into why oil and gas are expected to remain the go-to fuels of choice until at least 2050, despite technological, geopolitical and regulatory issues. The magazine also includes features on workforce management issues and on discoveries in onshore and offshore East Africa.

http://www.epmag.com/index.php?area=art ... tyle=print
Also found in Iraq.
The discovery in Maysan, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Baghdad, is a "significant achievement" for the country, Jihad said.

Despite vast reserves and reliance on oil for government income, exploration in Iraq has been hindered by decades of conflict.

With the world's fourth-largest oil reserves, Iraq's government depends on oil revenues to fund more than 90% of its budget.

The discovery comes seven months after exploratory drilling began, Jihad said.

Iraq produces 3.2 million barrels of oil a day, exporting 72% of it, he said.

In 2010, Iraqi officials estimated the country had 143 billion barrels of extractable oil, most of it in the southern oil fields.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/world/mea ... discovery/

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North-Kurdistan Iraq:

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Updated: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:53:00 GMT | By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press, thecanadianpress.com
Talisman calls Kurdistan discovery 'giant'

CALGARY - Talisman Energy Inc. said Wednesday it has no intention of ditching its potentially "giant" oil discovery in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan as it pares other high-risk exploration projects from its portfolio.
http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/news/ ... ry-giant-1
Kurdistan's Oil Geology

Kurdistan is home to the western foothills of the Zagros mountain range, which forms the north-eastern border between it and Turkey to the North and Iran to the east. This structure was made from the collision of the three major land forms of Africa, Asia and Asia Minor. Specifically, the Arabian plate is colliding and subducting under and rotating with the Anatolian and Iranian microplates. This geologic province in Kurdistan, is an extension of the ancient Tethys Sea, further south which hosts the rich petroleum resources of the Persian Gulf. The oil and gas potential in Kurdistan is definitely of elephant size, similar to the southern neighbors.

Drilling for oil in this area is a major challenge, as the ground is a deep, complex, folding structure of fractured carbonates under extreme pressure. Almost every operator in the area has encountered delays, problems and drilling issues and have had to sidetrack around lost drilling assemblies down the hole. The costs for each appraisal well have over-run from $60 million to more than $100 million. The times required, forecast at 5 to 6 months, has taken over a year. Kurdistan is not an easy region to operate in oil exploration.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/352151- ... -kurdistan
Two Calgary companies go elephant hunting in Kurdistan
"I’m hopeful we’ve found something really big,” Talisman Energy executive says
By Jeff Lewis

Kirkuk, as the reservoir is known, holds an estimated 25 billion barrels of light crude oil. Herbert, executive vice-president of exploration at Talisman Energy Inc., is part of a team plumbing a promising hole in a nearby exploration block in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq called the Zagros fold belt.
http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2013/ ... istan-oil/
Oryx is exploring in west Africa and Iraqi Kurdistan, but it’s the Kurdistan assets we really like. Gandur is an excellent diplomat who can navigate power brokers, which will make or break a junior company in this territory. Oryx isn’t making any money yet, but it will, and that’s why we think now is the time to get in on this. It could very easily go the way of Addax, which was making about $300 million annually in net income when it was sold to Sinopec. Gandur has dumped $700 million into Oryx, which has been busy buying up licenses and drilling wells. It’s sitting quite nicely in Kurdistan right now with a 100% focus on oil and 143 billion bbls of proven oil reserves.
http://321energy.com/editorials/oilpric ... 72013.html (a good site btw...)
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:41 pm

Endless Scams IMHO...
The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff
Philip Davis

$2.5 Trillion - That's the size of the global oil scam.

It's a number so large that, to put it in perspective, we will now begin measuring the damage done to the global economy in "Madoff Units" ($50Bn rip-offs). $2.5Tn is 50 times the amount of money that Bernie Madoff scammed from investors in his lifetime, but it is less than the monthly excess price the global population is being manipulated into paying for a barrel of oil.

Where is the outrage? Where are the investigations?

Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), BP (BP), Total (TOT), Shell (RDS.A), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Societe Generale (SCGLY.PK) founded the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate "dark pool" trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/1 ... lscam.html


Image
http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oi ... ?mobile=nc

Price Risk Management - ICE 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/1386460#
EU probes oil majors on price manipulation

LONDON/OSLO | Tue May 14, 2013 3:29pm EDT

(Reuters) - European authorities have raided offices of oil majors Shell, BP and Statoil in an investigation of suspected manipulation of oil prices, one of the biggest cross-border actions since the Libor rigging scandal.

Authorities have sharpened scrutiny of financial benchmarks around the world since slapping large fines on some of the world's biggest banks for rigging interest rate benchmarks.

On Tuesday, the European Commission said it was investigating major oil companies over suspected anti-competitive agreements related to submission of prices to leading oil pricing agency Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill Group (MHFI.N).

"Officials carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of several companies active in and providing services to the crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels sectors," the Commission said. The inspections took place in two EU member states and one non-EU country, it said.

"The Commission has concerns that the companies may have colluded in reporting distorted prices to a price reporting agency to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products," it said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/ ... MX20130514

But in this morning’s UK papers we ad this stirring promise from the Prime Minister:
Mr Cameron is anxious to make sure people can also face criminal charges if they are found to have rigged the oil price and driven up prices for consumers. However, the Government is still seeking to establish whether any new laws could be applied retrospectively.
It was only 7 hours later that the same newspaper was able to report:
Number 10 admitted that any change in the law to prosecute anyone for allegedly fixing the pump price would be forward-looking, and would not be able to hold to account any executives caught up in the current scandal.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall ... turn-ever/

Banks Rigging Markets (Aluminum and other commodities)
http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=222926
Did Goldman Goose Oil?

3/26/2009 @ 10:00PM

How Goldman Sachs was at the center of the oil trading fiasco that bankrupted pipeline giant Semgroup.

“What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world,” says John Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocer turned oil refiner who is attempting to reorganize Semgroup in bankruptcy court. The $500 billion is how much the world would have overpaid for crude had a successful scam pushed up oil prices by $50 a barrel for 100 days.

What’s the evidence of this? Much is circumstantial. Proving oil-trading manipulation is difficult. But numerous people familiar with the events insist that Citibank, Merrill Lynch and especially Goldman Sachs had knowledge about Semgroup’s trading positions from their vetting of an ill-fated $1.5 billion private placement deal last spring. “Nothing’s been proven, but if somebody has your book and knows every trade, it would not be difficult to bet against that book and put the company into a tremendous liquidity squeeze,” says John Tucker, who is representing Kivisto.

What’s known for sure is that Goldman Sachs, through J. Aron & Co., its commodities trading arm, was in prime position to use such data–and profited handsomely from Semgroup’s fall. J. Aron was Semgroup’s biggest counterparty, trading both physical oil flowing through pipelines and paper oil, in the form of options and futures.

When crude oil peaked in July, Semgroup ran out of cash to meet margin requirements on options contracts it had with Aron, contracts on which it had paper losses of $350 million. Desperate to survive, Semgroup asked Aron to pony up $430 million it owed on physical oil. Aron said no, declared Semgroup in default on its contracts and demanded immediate payment of losses.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/ ... e-oil.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:50 pm

Interesting point that PAHs may have come from Antartica:

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Image

Fossil Life in ALH 84001?
These pages are an explanation of the Science paper of Dr. David McKay and his co-workers, where they give evidence that martian bacteria may have lived in the martian meteorite ALH 84001. I’ve tried to organize and review their evidence that ALH 84001 contains fossils and traces of ancient martian life, and also tried to outline some counter-evidence and some likely questions about the evidence. My intention is to present the work of McKay and co-authors even-handedly and nonjudgmentally.
Allan H. Treiman, Lunar and Planetary Institute.

....

B. The Evidence for Ancient Martian Life in ALH 84001.
McKay and his co-workers describe three kinds of features in ALH 84001 that they interpret as evidence for ancient martian life. These features are all in (and near) the carbonate mineral globules, which McKay and co-workers believe to have formed on Mars from liquid water. In the carbonate globules of ALH 84001, McKay and his co-workers found microscopic shapes that resemble living and fossil bacteria on Earth; microscopic mineral grains like some produced by living and fossil bacteria on Earth; and organic chemical compounds that resemble the decay products of bacteria on Earth.

...

McKay and co-workers infer that this grouping of minerals is very unlikely without intervention from living organisms. First, they interpret the porous look of the veinlets to mean that the carbonate minerals were partially dissolved, leaving holes behind. To dissolve the carbonate, the veinlets must have formed from acid water. But magnetite + greigite can only form nonbiologically from very alkaline (= not acid) water. If the water were acidic, the magnetite and greigite would have dissolved or appear partially dissolved, which they do not. So, McKay and co-authors say that the minerals magnetite + iron sulfides + magnesium carbonate could not have formed nonbiologically, and so must have been a result of biological processes.

This argument is subtle, and rests on interpretations of ambiguous textures and minerals. The porous zones could represent magnesium carbonate that was dissolved out, but could also represent another mineral that was dissolved out, for instance a water-soluble mineral like salt. Also, although it may not be significant, the identification of “greigite” is not certain. These grains decomposed while they were being analyzed (by transmission electron microscope), so their actual chemical composition, structure, and stability in acid or alkaline solutions is not certain.

3. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

McKay and his co-workers found very small quantities of organic molecules near and in the carbonate mineral globules in ALH 84001. These molecules, called “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” or PAHs, are a group of chemicals with similar structures; the only PAH that might be familiar to a non-chemist is napthalene, the chemical in mothballs. PAHs can form during decomposition of bacteria, but can also form in many other ways. In fact, PAHs are abundant in the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which are from the asteroid belt and did not ever contain life as we know it.

McKay and co-workers try to show that the PAHs in ALH 84001 are derived from ancient martian bacteria by showing that they (1) are not contamination from laboratory procedures, (2) are not Earth PAHs that entered the meteorite while it was in Antarctica, (3) are not like PAHs in other meteorites (which have nothing to do with life), and (4) are consistent with decomposition of simple bacteria.

a. PAHs form easily, in small quantities, from many human and laboratory activities. For example, PAHs are relatively abundant in burnt meat, and are the prime suspects in its supposed carcinogenic properties. So it is very important to be sure that the PAHs in ALH 84001 were not accidentally put there during its handling and laboratory study. To ensure that the PAHs in ALH 84001 really belonged there, McKay and co-workers took PAH-free objects (glass slides) through the identical handling and analysis procedures they used for ALH 84001. McKay and co-workers could detect no PAHs that came from their handling and analysis procedures. Then, they exposed meteorite samples, with and without PAHs, to the same handling and analysis procedures used for ALH 84001. Again, there was no evidence that that PAHs were added onto the meteorite samples.

McKay and co-workers seem to have shown that the PAHs in ALH 84001 did not get in during laboratory handling or chemical analyses.

b. It is possible that the PAHs in ALH 84001 got in while the meteorite was in Antarctica. After all, PAHs are relatively abundant on Earth as natural organic products and from fire. McKay and co-workers applied a number to tests to show that the PAHs are not from Earth.

If the PAHs in ALH 84001 were from Earth, one might expect that they would be more abundant near the meteorite’s surface, and less abundant deep inside. On the other hand, if the PAHs were extraterrestrial, they should have been vaporized away from the meteorite’s surface during its fiery descent through the Earth’s atmosphere. McKay and co-workers tested these ideas by measuring the abundances of PAHs inward from the outside surface (the fusion crust) of ALH 84001. They found (in Fig. 1b of their paper that the abundances of PAHs increased as they worked in toward the center of ALH 84001. This increase inward suggests that the PAHs were already in the meteorite before it came through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Today, the principal sources of PAHs on Earth are “anthropogenic emissions,” exhaust and smoke from burning fossil fuels and from industrial processes. McKay et al. show, however, that the specific PAH chemicals in ALH 84001 are not the same as those in the Earth’s atmosphere. Particularly, sulfur-bearing PAHs are abundant in the Earth’s atmosphere, but undetectable in ALH 84001.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/life.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

Chromium6
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:48 pm

Re: Hydrocarbons in the Deep Earth?

Unread post by Chromium6 » Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:27 pm

A story from Russian and Swedish researchers on abiotic oil from 2009.

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Fossils From Animals And Plants Are Not Necessary For Crude Oil And Natural Gas, Swedish Researchers Find

What would happen if it were proven that "fossil fuels" weren't the result of decaying plant and animal matter, were actually created within the Earth due to simple chemistry and you could not be scared into believing that we were "running out" of oil and natural gas?

Estimates of how much crude oil we have extracted from the planet vary wildly. As late as May of 2009 a report published in the International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology suggested that we may have used more than we think.

The idea that we are running out of oil is not a new one. Scientists have told us that oil is a limited resource which was formed millions of years ago by the decaying vegetation and biomass of extinct species of plants and animals. With an estimated 1- trillion barrels of oil already extracted from deep wells since commercial drilling began around 1870, many predict that we are nearing the mid-point of remaining oil on the planet.

But there have always been those who claim that oil is a natural substance that forms automatically in the Earth's mantle. They say that it is virtually everywhere, if you can drill deep enough to tap it.

Proponents of so-called "abiotic oil" claim that the proof is found in the fact that many capped wells, which were formerly dry of oil, are found to be plentiful again after many years, They claim that the replenished oil is manufactured by natural forces in the Earth's mantle.

Critics of the abiotic theory disagree. They claim that capped wells may appear to refill after a few years, but they are not regenerating. It is simply an effect of oil slowly migrating through pore spaces from areas of high pressure to the low-pressure area of the drill hole. If this oil is drawn out, it will take even longer for the hole to refill again. They hold that oil is a non-renewable resource generated and deposited under special biological and geological conditions.

Until now these believers in "abiotic oil" have been dismissed as professing "bad science" but -- alas -- a new study has proven them correct!

Reported in ScienceDaily, researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm have managed to prove that fossils from animals and plants are not necessary for crude oil and natural gas to be generated. The findings are revolutionary since this means, on the one hand, that it will be much easier to find these sources of energy and, on the other hand, that they can be found all over the globe.

"Using our research we can even say where oil could be found in Sweden," says Vladimir Kutcherov, a professor at the Division of Energy Technology at KTH.

Together with two research colleagues, Vladimir Kutcherov has simulated the process involving pressure and heat that occurs naturally in the inner layers of the earth, the process that generates hydrocarbon, the primary component in oil and natural gas.

According to Vladimir Kutcherov, the findings are a clear indication that the oil supply is not about to end, which researchers and experts in the field have long feared.

Abiotic Oil

The abiotic oil formation theory suggests that crude oil is the result of naturally occurring and possibly ongoing geological processes. This theory was developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, as the Union needed to be self sufficient in terms of producing its own energy. The science behind the theory is sound and is based on experimental evidence in both the laboratory and in the field. This theory has helped to identify and therefore develop large numbers of gas and oil deposits. Examples of such fields are the South Khylchuyu field and the controversial Sakhalin II field.

In its simplest form, the theory is that carbon present in the magma beneath the crust reacts with hydrogen to form methane as well as a raft of other mainly alkane hydrocarbons. The reactions are more complicated than this, with several intermediate stages. Particular mineral rocks such as granite and other silicon based rocks act as catalysts, which speed up the reaction without actually becoming involved or consumed in the process.

Experiments have shown that under extreme conditions of heat and pressure it is possible to convert iron oxide, calcium carbonate and water into methane, with hydrocarbons containing up to 10 carbon atoms being produced by Russian scientists last century and confirmed in recent US experiments. The absence of large quantities of free gaseous oxygen in the magma prevents the hydrocarbons from burning and therefore forming the lower energy state molecule carbon dioxide. The conditions present in the Earth's mantle would easily be sufficient for these small hydrocarbon chains to polymerise into the longer chain molecules found in crude oil.

Vladimir Kutcherov adds that there is no way that fossil oil, with the help of gravity or other forces, could have seeped down to a depth of 10.5 kilometers in the state of Texas, for example, which is rich in oil deposits. As Vladimir Kutcherov sees it, this is further proof, alongside his own research findings, of the genesis of these energy sources -- that they can be created in other ways than via fossils. This has long been a matter of lively discussion among scientists.

"There is no doubt that our research proves that crude oil and natural gas are generated without the involvement of fossils. All types of bedrock can serve as reservoirs of oil," says Vladimir Kutcherov, who adds that this is true of land areas that have not yet been prospected for these energy sources.

But the discovery has more benefits. The degree of accuracy in finding oil is enhanced dramatically -- from 20 to 70 percent. Since drilling for oil and natural gas is a very expensive process, the cost picture will be radically altered for petroleum companies, and in the end probably for consumers as well.

"The savings will be in the many billions," says Vladimir Kutcherov.

To identify where it is worthwhile to drill for natural gas and oil, Vladimir Kutcherov has used his research to arrive at a new method. It involves dividing the globe into a finely meshed grid. The grid corresponds to fissures, so-called 'migration channels,' through underlying layers under the surface of the earth. Wherever these fissures meet, it is suitable to drill.

According to Vladimir Kutcherov, these research findings are extremely important, not least as 61 percent of the world's energy consumption derives from crude oil and natural gas.

The next step in this research work will involve more experiments, but above all refining the method will make it easier to find places where it is suitable to drill for oil and natural gas.

Vladimir Kutcherov, Anton Kolesnikov, and Alexander Goncharov's research work was recently published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Methane-derived hydrocarbons produced under upper-mantle conditions

Anton Kolesnikov1,2, Vladimir G. Kutcherov2,3 & Alexander F. Goncharov1
Abstract

There is widespread evidence that petroleum originates from biological processes1, 2, 3. Whether hydrocarbons can also be produced from abiogenic precursor molecules under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions characteristic of the upper mantle remains an open question. It has been proposed that hydrocarbons generated in the upper mantle could be transported through deep faults to shallower regions in the Earth's crust, and contribute to petroleum reserves4, 5. Here we use in situ Raman spectroscopy in laser-heated diamond anvil cells to monitor the chemical reactivity of methane and ethane under upper-mantle conditions. We show that when methane is exposed to pressures higher than 2 GPa, and to temperatures in the range of 1,000-1,500 K, it partially reacts to form saturated hydrocarbons containing 2-4 carbons (ethane, propane and butane) and molecular hydrogen and graphite. Conversely, exposure of ethane to similar conditions results in the production of methane, suggesting that the synthesis of saturated hydrocarbons is reversible. Our results support the suggestion that hydrocarbons heavier than methane can be produced by abiogenic processes in the upper mantle.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 084259.htm

http://viewzone.com/abioticoilx.html
On the Windhexe: ''An engineer could not have invented this,'' Winsness says. ''As an engineer, you don't try anything that's theoretically impossible.''

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