From ‘The Origins of Oil’ by Kasimir Petrovich Kalitsky, Russian Oil Geologist
Earth’s petroleum and natural gas deposits were formed inorganically, commonly known as abiotic oil.
This mechanism involves synthesis of oil within the crust via catalysis by chemically reductive rocks for the formation of inorganic hydrocarbons is via natural analogy of the Fischer–Tropsch process known as the serpentinite mechanism or the serpentinite process.
Serpentinization is a critical geochemical process occurring when ultramafic rocks like peridotite, olivine, and pyroxene from the Earth’s mantle react with water at temperatures typically below 500°C, transforming into serpentinite. This hydration reaction releases significant amounts of molecular hydrogen (H2). (PubMed Central (PMC) (.gov) +3)
How Serpentinization Generates Methane:
- Abiotic Synthesis: The hydrogen produced (H) can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbon monoxide (CO) present in the rock or water. This reduction process, often called Fischer-Tropsch-type (FTT) synthesis or CO2 hydrogenation, produces methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbons.
- Catalytic Action: Transition metals found in ultramafic rocks, such as iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni), or minerals formed during the process like magnetite (FeO4) and awaruite (Ni3Fe), act as catalysts that speed up the conversion of H2 and CO2 into methane.
- Low-Temperature Production: Serpentinization can occur at temperatures lower than 100°C, generating alkaline pH environments (pH>9) which are ideal for both abiotic methane production and the support of microbial communities.
- Fluid Inclusions: Methane can also be produced within olivine-hosted fluid inclusions, where trapped water reacts with olivine, creating a closed system that produces methane during cooling. (PNAS +4)
Significance:
Serpentinization is a major source of abiotic methane on Earth and may play a similar role on other planetary bodies, including Mars, Europa, and Enceladus, acting as a potential indicator of habitable environments.
(PubMed Central (PMC) (.gov) +1)
1. The Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopes
This is the most common test. Elements like carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) come in “heavy” and “light” versions (isotopes).
- Microbial: Life is lazy. Microbes prefer using the lightest isotopes (12C) because they are easier to process. Therefore, microbial methane is “light” — it has a high concentration of 12C and a low concentration of 13C.
- Abiotic: Chemical reactions aren’t as picky. Abiotic methane is “heavy,” containing more 13C and deuterium (D or 2H) and low concentration of 13Ccompared to the microbial version.
2. “Clumped” Isotopes
· This is a newer, more precise method. It looks at how often heavy isotopes (like 13C and D) are bonded to each other in the same molecule.
· Microbial: Microbes produce “clumped” signatures that are often out of equilibrium with their environment, effectively a biological “glitch”.
· Abiotic: Since this happens through heat and mineral catalysis, the clumping reflects the actual temperature at which the methane formed.
3. The Hydrocarbon “Family Tree”
· Microbial: Usually produces pure methane. You won’t find much ethane or propane alongside it.
· Abiotic: Serpentinization often produces a chain. If you find methane mixed with ethane, propane, and butane, it’s a strong sign of abiotic Fischer-Tropsch-type synthesis.
4. Co-occurring Gases
- Microbial: Often found with high levels of hydrogen (H2) being consumed.
- Abiotic: Found in systems with extremely high (H2) levels and high alkalinity (pH 11+), which are byproduct signatures of the rock-water reaction itself.
The Serpentinization process is well proven.
IF the earth was covered in a metre of fossil debris it could not account for the estimated one trillion barrels of oil extracted or know reserves. Or the fact that fossils are not found at the depth of oil, often deep under granite that fossil oil could never reach or penetrate and as it being lighter than water would always float upwards near surface areas.
Many oil wells that were pumped dry are now full again and operating — The fossil theory is that fossil oil has floated upwards to fill the reservoir, but this is near impossible dure the depth being below where any fossils have ever been found and there is no identifiable fossil fuel generation occurring, the chemical chains prove no fossil signatures.
The Oceanic crust crashes into the Continental crust where the Oceanic plate being lighter is forced down under the heavier Continental plate into the mantle and molten magma forming volcanoes — the Pacific ring of fire. Continental drift has other plates separating also causes molten magma to extrude upwards, as these deep mantle rocks are forced upwards a new crust is being formed going through the process of transformation and serpentinization. The rocks in the mantle have a high concentration of olivine (a dense green rock) which goes through a metamorphic process known as serpentinization. And the by-product of serpentinization is hydrocarbons or oil and methane gas, an exothermic reactions occurs being heat produced by this metamorphic change of serpentinization.
There are 7 major tectonic plates creating Active Continental Collision Zones — the Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian, and South American plates. Covering about 95% of the Earth’s surface, these plates constantly move, interacting at boundaries causing lighter plates being forced down into the mantle and molten magma where serpentinization is continually occurring producing hydrocarbons.
We can tell where this process has occurred and where it is occurring today by where indigenous minerals and rocks peridotite or garnets are found, the process of serpentinization has usually occurred nearby, this is where oil deposits are found
.Oil comprises 85% carbon, 13% hydrogen and 0.5% oxygen with traces of sulphur and nitrogen. Most chemists used to believe it originated from the decomposition of organic matter – layers formed from the remains of dead animals. Hence the name ‘fossil fuel’. By definition its source was very limited.
That theory was plausible when oil wells were drilled into the fossil layers of the Earth’s crust; but if oil comes from ‘basement rock’, kilometres underground, it is well below the fossil layer negating that theory.
Despite conventional wisdom around fossil fuels, the argument for non-biologically produced oil was not a new one. In 1951, the Russian scientist N. A Kudryavtsev, announced the theory that deep petroleum was produced abiotically. His theories were consolidated with the exploration of the oil fields of Dneiper-Donets in the early 1990s.
Kudryavtsev’s work laid the foundation for modern understanding of petroleum formation, emphasizing that petroleum deposits often have a capstone that prevents the upward migration of hydrocarbons. That also proves it prevents the downward migration of any fossil product.
World-renowned geologist, C Warren Hunt’s ‘Anhydride’ theory of 1996, asserted the idea of biogenesis from living microbial forms, as opposed to fossilized forms. He posits that petroleum is generated biologically from methane, which is released from the earth’s interior, where bacteria and archaea single-celled microorganisms strip hydrogen from methane, resulting in the formation of biogenic petroleum.
This Anhydride theory has been supported by various scientific studies and is considered a significant paradigm shift in petroleum science.
If oil is constantly replenishing, why should it run out? A few years ago, there was great panic of the gullible minds that we had reached ‘Peak Oil’ and that we were going to run out. This was an industry-based PR exercise to increase fuel prices; to give credence to the Peak-Oil story they showed old wells that were near dry.
The book: ‘Power from the Earth Deep Earth Gas — Energy for the Future’ by Thomas Gold [J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, London, 1987] ISBN 0-460-04462-1 May. He states: There are within the Earth virtually limitless stores of energy in the form of gas and oil as yet untapped. This energy is of non-biological origin and there is far more of it in the Earth than geologists have ever imagined — and IT IS ACCESSIBLE! While drilling in Sweden at a depth of about four miles (6.43 km), they encountered a hydrocarbon oil similar to light petroleum that depth is below where any fossil had ever been found.
Scientists working at the Gas Resources Corporation, Houston, mimic conditions more than 100km below the Earth’s surface, by heating marble, iron oxide and water to around 1,500°C and to 50,000 times the atmospheric pressure. The theory withstands tests put to it and settles many previously unresolved problems in petroleum production science.
The White Tiger Fields off the coast of Vietnam (discovered in the 1970s) became the centre of scientific attention as exploration companies drilled for oil 1.61kms into solid granite – where fossil deposits could never have reached or formed under granite. They started producing 338 000 barrels of oil per day. These new ‘non fossil’ fields are estimated to hold a further 600 million barrels.
2005: New tests prove validity of ‘non-fossil’ claims
Extensive geological investigations by Shell and BP, and presented at (scientific symposium) in New York confirm that the source of new-found oil reserves is “not fossil”!
Arthur Kantrowitz of the ‘AVCO Company Kantrowitz Labs’ near Boston, said, “The deepest fossil ever found has been at about 16,000 feet (4.8kms) below sea level; yet we are getting oil from wells drilled to 30,000 (9.144kms) and more. How could fossil fuel get down there? If it was once living matter, it had to be on the surface. If it did turn into petroleum, at or near the surface, how could it ever get to such depths? What is heavier Oil or Water?” Water: so, it would go down, not oil. Oil would be on top, if it were “organic” and “lighter.”
Original Oil producers coined the false phrase “Fossil Fuel” to create the concept that it was of limited supply and therefore extremely valuable justifying their high prices and massive profits. “Fossil Fuel” was nothing more than a philosophical money scam that many believed.
On June 20th, 1996 Col. Fletcher Prouty stated… “Oil is often called a ‘fossil’ fuel; the idea being that it comes from formerly living organisms. This may have been plausible back when oil wells were drilled into the fossil layers of the earth’s crust; but today, great quantities of oil are found in deeper wells that are found below the level of any fossils.
The Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit in Northeastern Alberta, Canada, is found to be the largest source of petroleum in the world. Beneath Alberta’s tar sands, at a depth of 7,200 ft (2.195km), is the world’s largest hydrocarbon deposit. Estimates believe the fields to hold 1.7 trillion barrels of oil.
Oil fields are usually found from about 2,000 metres (2kms) to 4,800 metres (4.8kms) deep — Whereas the deepest fossil reported ever found has been was at 2.615 kms.
In 2011, Exxon Neftegas, operator of the Sakhalin-1 project, drilled the then world’s deepest well surpassing previous record holders the Al Shaheen well and the Kola Superdeep Borehole as the world’s longest borehole. The Odoptu OP-11 Well reached a measured total depth of 40,502 ft (12,345 km). By 27 August 2012, Exxon Neftegas beat its own record by completing the Z-44 Chayvo well. This well has an astonishing total depth of 40,604 ft (12.376 km) which is 15 times the height of the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Abiotic methane synthesis and serpentinization in olivine-hosted fluid inclusions | PNAS
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6731755
Abstract
The conditions of methane (CH4) formation in olivine-hosted secondary fluid inclusions and their prevalence in peridotite and gabbroic rocks from a wide range of geological settings were assessed using confocal Raman spectroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis, and thermodynamic modeling. Detailed examination of 160 samples from ultraslow- to fast-spreading midocean ridges, subduction zones, and ophiolites revealed that hydrogen (H2) and CH4 formation linked to serpentinization within olivine-hosted secondary fluid inclusions is a widespread process. Fluid inclusion contents are dominated by serpentine, brucite, and magnetite, as well as CH4(g) and H2(g) in varying proportions, consistent with serpentinization under strongly reducing, closed-system conditions.
Thermodynamic constraints indicate that aqueous fluids entering the upper mantle or lower oceanic crust are trapped in olivine as secondary fluid inclusions at temperatures higher than ∼400 °C. When temperatures decrease below ∼340 °C, serpentinization of olivine lining the walls of the fluid inclusions leads to a near-quantitative consumption of trapped liquid H2O. The generation of molecular H2 through precipitation of Fe(III)-rich daughter minerals results in conditions that are conducive to the reduction of inorganic carbon and the formation of CH4. Once formed, CH4(g) and H2(g) can be stored over geological timescales until extracted by dissolution or fracturing of the olivine host. Fluid inclusions represent a widespread and significant source of abiotic CH4 and H2 in submarine and subaerial vent systems on Earth, and possibly elsewhere in the solar system.
Eugene Island
On Eugene Island, Louisiana, in 1995, it was reported that the oil fields were – perplexingly – refilling themselves after being depleted. The findings of Dr. Jean K. Whelan, part of a US Department of Energy exploration program, seem to support the abiotic theory to explain this. She found that the oil likely came from great depths, as abiotic
In 1999, The Wall Street Journal reported:
Production at the oil field, deep in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, was supposed to have declined years ago. And for a while, it behaved like any normal field: Following its 1973 discovery, Eugene Island 330’s output peaked at about 15,000 barrels a day. By 1989, production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.
Then suddenly – some say almost inexplicably – Eugene Island’s fortunes reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co., is now producing 13,000 barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 million barrels from 60 million.
Stranger still, scientists studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago.
Scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports a biogenic origin for most of the world’s petroleum deposits.
(Extracted from ‘The Origins of Oil’ by Kasimir Petrovich Kalitsky A Russian Oil Geologist and Power from the Earth Deep Earth Gas — Energy for the Future by Thomas Gold, Fischer–Tropsch, PNAS, PMC and others.)
