So we're supposed to believe an <i>English professor</i>'s claims? Even if oil is generated by the Earth, it is still getting harder to extract every day. All the easy to extract oil is already out of the ground.
I don't necessarily agree with the abiogenic theory, but I have two questions: - has anyone ever proven that oil is a "fossil fuel"? - how did all that oil get miles below the water and earth in the Gulf Of Mexico? oil is typically found underneath salt domes because it tends to rise and the salt traps it. How did all those dinos get down so far? But like Pekelo points out, it doesn't really matter if it is not being replenished at a high enough rate or at all.
Quick rundown: 1. The Mississippi river has been flowing into the GOM for many millions of years. 2. It has been carrying sediment, ranging from coarse sand to very fine silt in size. 3. Before dams were built along the river, it could have enormous flood phases - these floods would pick up a whole bunch more sediments and move them even further into the GOM. 4. The sediments also contain organic material, like zooplankton and algaes and the like. 5. The organic material travels far out to sea, with the heavier/bigger sediments falling out faster than the smaller particles as the velocity of the flow decreases, and gets buried by the sediment. 6. Over millions of years, the river will have quite a few super high energy events, dragging tons of sediments out to sea. 7. The sediments eventually get buried to many thousands of feet deep, which results in extreme pressure and heat. There is also little oxygen this far down, which is necessary for oil to be produced. 8. If the temperature and pressure are great enough, the oil formation process begins. It takes quite some time to change to oil, and if it continues to be baked, it will turn into lighter oils and then into natural gas. 9. A reservoir needs a seal at the top to trap the oil/gas, typically shale. Shale is created by exposing very fine particles to the same extreme pressures necessary to create oil. The tiny silt particles and such get squeezed so tight, they basically form a rock with virtually zero permeability (ability for porous media to transmit fluid). These particles come from when the high energy events start settling, because the lowered velocities allow the particles to drop out of the water. Likewise, the porous and permeable rock (typically sandstones) are created during the same events, but when the larger grains of sand drop out of the water before the fine particles and are compressed right below the shale (cap rock). Salt domes are prime locations to search for oil because salt is lighter than rock, so it essentially forces it's way upward towards the surface, fracturing many layers of rock during it's journey. Salt is also impermeable so it, along with the surround shale layers, can also form traps to catch migrating oil/gas (generated by the organic-rich layers of rock, called source rock). If there is ever not a seal above source rock, the oil/gas simply migrates the whole way to the surface. There are many cases of oil seeps throughout the world, along with natural gas seeps. It is amazing that these reservoirs exist in such quantity because of these very specific conditions necessary for oil to exist. So in short, for an oil/natural gas reservoir to exist in economic quantity, it needs: the correct depositional environment (primarily alternating layers of sandstone and shale), a very narrow range of pressure and heat for a specific amount of time, some sort of cap rock to hold in the oil/gas (keep in mind any fault created by earthquakes/land shifts could be a great transport for migrating hydrocarbons), and lastly, a way for us to discover it and drill it. P.S. This is only one example of how oil is formed. Another quick example: earthquakes can and do "shake" tons of sediment off the continental shelf into basins offshore, like with the Southern California turbidite flows, which have produced some of the most prolific reservoirs in the world.