Petroleum: Why We’ll Never Run Out

There’s no shortage of scare stories about looming oil crises — Don’t believe ‘em

[Washington] …The President has signed legislation creating the Federal Oil Conservation Board, to ration dwindling supplies of petroleum…a recent report from the US Geological Survey has indicated oil supplies may be gone entirely within six years…

Last week’s newscast? Actually, it was 1924, and the President was Calvin Coolidge. An interesting story that proves little, except that scare stories about oil shortages have been around longer than any of us.

My first experience with oil scares was in grade school in the mid 1970s, where legions of well-meaning teachers taught us the planet had “30 years” of oil remaining. Those years have come and gone, and oil reserves have actually grown larger — fifty years worth or more. So much, in fact, that doomsayers have been forced to fall back on discredited old theories such as “Peak Oil.” — a topic I’ll save for another blog.

But we will eventually run out, won’t we? After all, oil is a limited resource, made slowly from limited organic materials. Or is it? Not according to physicist Thomas Gold, author of The Deep Hot Biosphere. His view is that oil is made deep within the earth by inorganic processes. If true, the planet may have many thousands as times as much oil as first thought. The theory– known as abiogenic petroleum, is still highly controversial. However, NASA’s recent Cassini mission to Saturn’s moon Titan gave it a boost, as evidence there shows its atmosphere is essentially a gigantic oil refinery, filled with the same hydrocarbons that make up petroleum here on earth.

Abiogenesis may push back the date we run out of oil, but it doesn’t change the fact that eventually we will, right? Actually, no. Natural petroleum is a limited resource, but producing synthetic petroleum in the lab is easy. The Germans were making synthetic diesel for military use in WW2. With enough cheap energy, it can be done with no raw materials but water and carbon dioxide. Best yet — the process is carbon neutral… the CO2 generated when the oil is burned is equal to the CO2 used to produce it. At current electricity prices, such a process is much too expensive… but we’re talking about the far future, when natural petroleum is scarce, and therefore pricey.

Daily Tech