"HeyBub" wrote:


No more dimly than the classic view: "The original creation of oil or
petroleum is not well understood. There are several theories, but the matter
is still one of scientific controversy."
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/...il_create.html

One of the big "gotchas" is how did hydrocarbons pop up on Jupiter and
Saturn if hydrocarbon creation depended solely on decomposed plant material?

Then there's this book: "The deep, hot, biosphere"
http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Hot-Biosp...3340325&sr=8-1

You're certainly correct that more study and research is needed. But,
the consensus today is that the vast majority of oil and coal
formation requires millions of years of heat and pressure.

So, is oil being "created" today? Certainly. Is it being created fast
enough to help us? I wouldn't hold my breath.

Thus far, no evidence of old oil fields "sponanteously recharging"
themselves has presented itself.

I agree that no amount of discoveries or technology will change production
rates. Changes in the political world will. But it doesn't matter.

Political changes will have some effect, but oil production is more a
matter of economics and geology.

If all regulations were eliminated tomorrow, and we could drill and
produce anywhere, it still wouldn't move the production peak by more
than a couple of years. And, it would make the decline that much more
painful.