oil: slow renewable fossil fuel? or more frequently renewable from shale?

[johnny861]

It's not to say that we don't consume more than we produce, nor are there environmental concerns, but consider the following:


shale rock can be cheaply converted to oil using a patented process by a Dutch company, along with other more expensive means of conversion.

There's growing evidence to suggest that this conversion happens naturally as shale comes in contact with volcanic materials within the Earth.

This effect is apparent in dried up oil wells in Pennsylvania that have recently been discovered to have oil deposits again.

Also, we've held for the longest time the notion that oil is mostly a fossil based substance.

As a fossil fuel, how many dinosaurs would it take to produce the levels of oil found in the Earth?

Also, According to data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Jupiter's moon, Titan, is estimated to have more oil than the Earth. Unless dinosaurs roamed the solar system, this may support the shale claim, or similar process.


Discuss.

[zerojunkie]

Originally Posted by johnny861

It's not to say that we don't consume more than we produce, nor are there environmental concerns, but consider the following:


shale rock can be cheaply converted to oil using a patented process by a Dutch company, along with other more expensive means of conversion.

There's growing evidence to suggest that this conversion happens naturally as shale comes in contact with volcanic materials within the Earth.

This effect is apparent in dried up oil wells in Pennsylvania that have recently been discovered to have oil deposits again.

Also, we've held for the longest time the notion that oil is mostly a fossil based substance.

As a fossil fuel, how many dinosaurs would it take to produce the levels of oil found in the Earth?

Also, According to data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Jupiter's moon, Titan, is estimated to have more oil than the Earth. Unless dinosaurs roamed the solar system, this may support the shale claim, or similar process.


Discuss.

There has to be some process still at work that turns the biotic compounds into hydrocarbons. As I understood it, organic matter that grew in bogs and swampy environments ended up as oil. The stuff that grew in dryer environments turned into coal. Scientists are pretty sure the extraterrestrial hydrocarbons came about through abiotic processes though.

[johnny861]

Originally Posted by zerojunkie

There has to be some process still at work that turns the biotic compounds into hydrocarbons. As I understood it, organic matter that grew in bogs and swampy environments ended up as oil. The stuff that grew in dryer environments turned into coal. Scientists are pretty sure the extraterrestrial hydrocarbons came about through abiotic processes though.

And that process, or various processes would still have to be at play, but some theories seem to suggest greater yields, than others.

I guess it all boils down to following organic theory versus one of the non-organic theories that suggests a primordial origin.

Perhaps not really a matter of renewables as in quantities.