Is oil really a 'Fossil' fuel or is something else going on?

Question

Audio (4.18Mb): http://www.gasresources.net/Kenney-NPR.mp3

Further information can be found by searching for: "deep abiotic oil theory"

Answer 1

there's also a theory, I believe by Dr. Gold, which states that since the mantle of the earth is so heterogeneous, it may contain hydrocarbons that are deposited or leak into formations.

The reason we think it's a fossil fuel is because we can see various stages of the progression including decaying organic material, kerogen, then various oils in sedimentary deposits.

I suppose there could be more to the story though.

Answer 2

That's the current theory. If you take an animal from the past, a 250 million years ago beast, say, and figure out exactly how it would decompose and what fluids and chemicals it would be, then you should be able to figure out, with computers, how many animals it took to produce 1 gallon of oil. Then you could figure out how many gallons of oil and gas  have been consumed worldwide since, say, 1870, and that would give you the number of fossils and other vegetation and matter that have decayed to produce it. The reason this hasn't been done, I believe, is that the number would be so big that the theory would appear to be nonsense. Just my thought, there. i don't have an alternate theory. 8~)

Answer 3

A fossil fuel by definition is "Any naturally occurring organic fuel formed in the Earth’s crust, such as petroleum, coal and natural gas". In broader sense it is called like that because its formation dates from the Paleozoic era (Carboniferous period) just before the dinosaurs! At that time there was a peak in vegetation development in our planet and mostly of what we are using nowadays of coal and oil comes from that period .

In geological terms, one can consider oil is renewable resource but the thing is the rhythm we are exploiting it has largely overcame the rhythm of its formation (because its takes long time as well as pressure and temperature to go from a sediment with organic matter to oil or coal).