Related Information and Resources

Here are some papers and documents I've been able to get in regards to Oil.

I have not reviewed all of these in detail. I offer them as general information.

THOMAS GOLD |(geochemistry/planetology)

ABSTRACT There are strong indications that microbial
life is widespread at depth in the crust of the Earth, just as such
life has been identified in numerous ocean vents. This life is not
dependent on solar energy and photosynthesis for its primary
energy supply, and it is essentially independent of the surface
circumstances. Its energy supply comes from chemical sources,
due to fluids that migrate upward from deeper levels in the
Earth. In mass and volume it may be comparable with all
surface life. Such microbial life may account for the presence
of biological molecules in all carbonaceous materials in the
outer crust, and the inference that these materials must have
derived from biological deposits accumulated at the surface is
therefore not necessarily valid. Subsurface life may be widespread
among the planetary bodies of our solar system, since
many of them have equally suitable conditions below, while
having totally inhospitable surfaces. One may even speculate
that such life may be widely disseminated in the universe, since
planetary type bodies with similar subsurface conditions may
be common as solitary objects in space, as well as in other
solar-type systems.

Martin Sereno |Peak Oil

Most of the World has Already Peaked
• Only producers that have not peaked are OPEC and FSU
• This is called “depletion”
• Depletion is occurring despite widespread use of secondary
methods in mature fields
• Since world demand is growing, depletion means that the
non-peaked countries will have to increment production
both to offset depletion and to meet new demand
• Recent price increases may make companies return to
previously unprofitable/abandoned fields; however,
it will not make those fields re-fill with easy-to-get oil

Running out of and into oil: Analyzing Global Oil depletion and transition through 2050
This report presents a risk analysis of world conventional oil resource production, depletion,
expansion, and a possible transition to unconventional oil resources such as oil sands, heavy oil
and shale oil over the period 2000 to 2050. Risk analysis uses Monte Carlo simulation methods
to produce a probability distribution of outcomes rather than a single value. Probability
distributions are produced for the year in which conventional oil production peaks for the world
as a whole and the year of peak production from regions outside the Middle East.

*please note, above is a 124 page pdf document

Oil preserved in fluid inclusions in Archaean sandstones
Oil is generally thought to be geologically young, as it is thermodynamically
unstable when subjected to elevated temperatures over long periods in open systems. Indeed, almost all petroleum production comes from rocks younger than 400 million years. Although the oldest known oil occurs in rocks 1,650Myr old, suitable source rocks were abundant in older geological successions and circumstantial evidence suggests that some of these generated hydrocarbons early in their history. Here, we report the discovery of oil preserved in fluid inclusions in sandstones dating back ,3,000Myr. Most inclusions lie within healed microfractures confined to individual detrital quartz grains, indicating that their oil was emplaced before Archaean or Palaeoproterozoic metamorphism sealed all voids and thus came from older (in some cases Archaean) sources. The fluid inclusions apparently acted as inert pressure vessels that protected the oil from subsequent degradation by circulating fluids and mineral catalysts. Because of its great age, this oil can potentially yield valuable information about the size and diversity of the early biosphere, particularly if it contains molecular fossils (biomarkers) of the primordial organisms from which it was derived.

Citations; links to abstracts and journals

Kinetics of Partial Oxidation of Alkanes at High Pressures: Oxidation of Ethane and Methane–Ethane Mixtures
E. V. Sheverdenkin et al. Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering

Encircling the Peak of World Oil Production
Richard C. Duncan1 and Walter Youngquist Natural Resources Research

Also, here are some generally informative links.
pubs.usgs.gov...

www.autobahn.mb.ca...