Oil Quotes

Oil Quotes

 Most part from: http://oilismastery.blogspot.com/

“Sigh. Why do people insist on perpetuating the myth that petroleum comes from dead plants and animals? The abiogenic origin of petroleum products is fairly established, and observable on other planets incapable of supporting life, yet with vast quantities of methane.”  --  Jere Krischel, 2010

“From the analysis of a ketchup stain on a tie can not be concluded that the tie would be made from tomatoes.”  --  Peter Szatmari, geologist

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” -- Albert Einstein,  physicist, cosmologist

“New ideas in science are not always right just because they are new. Nor are the old ideas always wrong just because they are old. A critical attitude is clearly required of every scientist.” -- Thomas Gold, 

astrophysicist, astronomer, cosmologist and geoscientist

“What they've been teaching us in school about oil coming from fossils is wrong.” -- C. Warren Hunt,  geologist

“Although the biogenic, organic model has been the one generally accepted by the petroleum industry almost since its birth, abiogenic, inorganic models recurrently emerge, proposed by geologists and, more often, chemists.” -- Peter Szatmari, geologist, 2011 

“The world is full of resources - the question is how we can apply technology to make then energy resources.” -- Robert Ryan, E&P manager, 2009 

“Recent theoretical and experimental evidence demonstrates the possibility that hydrocarbons may have formed in the depths of the earth. If the theory is substantiated further, then oil-depletion becomes a myth and the industry must be ready to face the new challenges of drilling even deeper, to the basement rock, where huge oil fields may await to be discovered, as White Tiger in Vietnam has proved.”  -- V.C. Kelessidis, Sethptember 2009

“There is no doubt that our research proves that crude oil and natural gas are generated without the involvement of fossils. All types of bedrock can serve as reservoirs of oil.” -- Vladimir A. Kutcherov, geologist, September 2009

“In the coal is found well preserved fossils of plants and animals, including saber-toothed tigers. It is thought that the coal was originally a thin liquid that surrounded and hardened around the fossils. So the fact that coal contains fossils does not necessarily mean that it is a fossil fuel.” -- M. Ragheb,  nuclear physicist, 2009

“... our planet may have enormous, inexhaustible resources of hydrocarbons.” -- Vladimir A. Kutcherov, geologist, August 2009

“We demonstrated the chemical transformation of methane to heavier saturated hydrocarbons such as ethane, butane and propane and its reversibility under the conditions of the upper Earth's mantle.” -- Alexander Goncharov, geologist, August 2009

“All major oil and gas provinces in the world are apparently associated with transtensive tectonic conditions, supporting the abiogenic theory of petroleum.” -- Karsten M. Storetvedt, geophysicist, August 2008

“The modern theory of the abiotic deep petroleum origins recognizes that petroleum is a primordial material of deep origin which has been erupted into the crust of the Earth. In short, petroleum is not a 'fossil fuel' and has no intrinsic connection with any biological detritus 'in the sediments'.” -- Vladimir A. Kutcherov, geologist, August 2008

“Ultra deep wells bring a range of  unexpectedness - basically [a] change of views of structures and geochemical processes in Earth.” -- Yuri Galant, geologist, August 2008

“It’s at least plausible that the 3.2 billion year old oil we found did in fact have an abiotic origin.”--Roger Buick, strobiologist/geoscientist, July 2008

“Our findings illustrate that the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in nature may occur in the presence of ultramafic rocks, water, and moderate amounts of heat.” -- Giora K. Proskurowski, geochemist/oceanographer, February 2008

“Five propositions in Geology, namely Plate Tectonics, Constant Size Earth, Heat Engine Earth, Elastic Rebound, and the Organic Origin of Hydrocarbon Reserves are challenged as Myths because their potential truth is not confirmed by Observation, and/or Experiment, and/or Logic. In their place the Excess Mass Stress Tectonics - EMST, i.e., a Solid, Quantified, Growing and Radiating Earth and its implications, such as the Inorganic Origin of Hydrocarbons, claims to be a Comprehensive Proposition.” -- Stavros T. Tassos, seismologist/geoscientist, November 2007

“In the context of Excess Mass Stress Tectonics – EMST, hydrocarbons are energy sources produced abiotically through a process whereby hydrogen and carbon, but also oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and trace-elements being formed in the Earth's core, rise through radial fracture trails in the solid and cold mantle to the Earth's surface. If their rise is blocked they compose bigger compounds, e.g., kerogen, that can transform by radiant heat in the upper 5 km or so of the Earth's interior, into gas, oil and coal, at temperatures <200, 100-50, and <50 ^oC, respectively. In the absence of trapping and/or above 200 ^oC, the temperature at which porphyrins are destroyed, they are released as methane gas, like in Titan today, and/or are fully oxidized to CO₂ and H₂O. Oil and gas reserves mature in basins adjacent to deformed precambrian shields and platforms, mostly during the last 200 m.y., when wide and deep oceans and a complex pattern of uplifts and sedimentary basins developed, thus providing the reservoirs and the structural and/or stratigraphic traps. They associate with moderate seismic and volcanic activity, free-air gravity, geoidal, and heat flow anomalies, and large igneous provinces, i.e., Excess Mass.” -- Stavros T. Tassos, seismologist/geoscientist, November 2007

“The paper presents a visual view of Expansion as opposed to Plate Tectonics. Superimposing oil and gas field locations on these visualized spreading zones may well indicate new areas for oil and gas discoveries to the professional.” -- Keith P. Wilson, geologist, November 2007

“The elemental distribution in the crude oil from all studied deposits does not match such of any known crustal rock.” -- Kirill S. Ivanov, geologist/geochemist, November 2007

“Generally in science, whenever new advances are made, old ideas should be re-examined in light of those advances. In the case of the abiotic origin of natural gas and petroleum, that is especially true, as the advances made pertaining to the processes operant during the formation of the solar system, and to the composition and dynamics of planet earth, all appear to greatly enhance the prognosis for those abiotic resources.” -- J. Marvin Herndon, geophysicist, September 2006

“Formation of higher hydrocarbons in the upper layers of the Earth's crust occurs only as the result of Fischer-Tropsch-type reactions in the presence of hydrogen gas but is otherwise not possible on thermodynamic grounds.” -- Geoffrey P. Glasby, geologist, 2006

“Examples of the occurance of abiogenically-derived hydrocarbons have been recorded.” -- Geoffrey P. Glasby, geologist, 2006

“It is possible to convert methane into a complex mixture of higher alkanes and alkenes at high pressures and temperatures but not carbohydrates, the fundamental building blocks of plants.” -- Geoffrey P. Glasby, geologist, 2006

“It is generally recognized that the first pre-biotic organic molecules on earth and elsewhere in the solar system must have been formed by abiogenic reactions.” -- Barbara Sherwood Lollar, geologist/geochemist, 2006

“Peak Oil theory is garbage as far as we’re concerned.” -- Robert W. Esser, geologist, 2006

“No one doubts that inorganic hydrocarbons may occur in association with hydrothermal systems.” -- Michael D. Lewan, geologist, 2005

“Abiogenic gasses are a clear fact. I can make them on the lab bench today.” -- Barbara Sherwood Lollar, geologist/geochemist, 2005

“We’ve barely tapped, from the exploration point of view, the hydrocarbon potential that’s out there on this planet.” -- Stanley B. Keith, geologist, 2005

“The methane is not that strongly fractionated but they still think it might be biological. At Lost City, you can't figure out if it's biological or not by the isotopes.” -- James F. Kasting, geoscientist, 2005

“This methane cannot be coming from living organisms.” -- Jean-Pierre Lebreton, astrophysicist, 2005

“In Galey's words, the only geologist who can ever really tell where oil is to be found goes by the name of  Dr. Drill.” -- Edwin Adkins, geologist, 2004

“An intriguing theory now permeating oil company research staffs suggests that crude oil may actually be a natural inorganic product, not a stepchild of unfathomable time and organic degradation. The theory suggests there may be huge, yet-to-be-discovered reserves of oil at depths that dwarf current world estimates.” -- Chris Bennett, environmental engineer, 2004

“Hydrocarbons can be re-defined as a “renewable” resource, rather than a finite one” (Gurney 1997).” -- Peter R. Odell, economist/geologist, 2004

“Enormous implications follow from oil and gas being renewable resources.” -- Peter R. Odell, economist/geologist, 2004

“Carbon fuels will dominate the 21st century's global energy economy.” -- Peter R. Odell, economist/geologist, 2004

“We're dealing with this giant flow-through system where the hydrocarbons are generating now, moving through the overlying strata now, building the reservoirs now and spilling out into the ocean now.”  -- Larry M. Cathles, geologist, 2003

“The subject of organic chemistry was wrongly taken by petroleum geologists long ago to mean chemistry of biologic origins. You can still have a book of organic chemistry that has nothing to do with organisms at all.” -- 

Thomas Gold, astrophysicist, astronomer, cosmologist, geoscientist, 2002

“I don't think anybody's arguing that gas couldn't be generated from the mantle.” -- Barry J. Katz, geologist, 2002

“I don't think anybody has ever doubted that there is an inorganic source of hydrocarbons.” -- Michael D. Lewan, geologist, 2002

“There has not been any 'debate' about the origin of hydrocarbons for over a century. Competent physicists, chemists, chemical engineers and men knowledgeable of thermodynamics have known that natural petroleum does not evolve from biological material since the last quarter of the 19th century.” -- Jack F. Kenney, geologist/geophysicist, 2002

“I do not know of any idea more likely to keep people impoverished than the idea that resources are natural, fixed, and finite.” -- Thomas R. DeGregori, economist, 2002

“Natural petroleum has no connection with biological matter.” -- Jack F. Kenney, geologist/geophysicist, 2001
“Geoscientists are limited only by their imagination, innovation and determination. In the coming decades there will be tremendous strides made in petroleum geology, geophysics and petroleum engineering. The challenge for all of us – whether we are geologists, geophysicists, engineers, independent explorationists, or company or government explorationists – is to devise new concepts and skills to explore in areas considered to be out of the question or impossible.” -- Michel T. Halbouty, geologist, 2000 


“These reservoirs are refilling with oil.” -- David Sibley, geologist, 1999  

“In my view, hydrocarbons are not biology reworked by geology (as the traditional view would hold) but rather geology reworked by biology. In other words, hydrocarbons are primordial, but as they upwell into the earth's outer crust, microbial life invades.” -- Thomas Gold, astrophysicist, astronomer, cosmologist, geoscientist,

“Even though the biogenic origin theory leads to many inconsistencies, it is nevertheless now impossible in the Western world to conduct any research in petroleum geology that implies a questioning of this accepted position.”  -- Thomas Gold, astrophysicist, astronomer, cosmologist, geoscientist, 1999

“The problem with the finite-resource theory is nicely illustrated by recent trends in oil production. There are 6,784 trillion fewer barrels of oil in the ground today than there were in 1981, the year in which relative oil scarcity was greatest. At first glance, then, one might think that the natural resource base has deteriorated. Yet oil is relatively more abundant today than it was 17 years ago.” -- Jerry Taylor, political scientist, 1998

“The industry will never run out of oil, not in 10,000 years. Some day, it may run out of customers. Every mineral industry is a perpetual tug-of-war, between diminishing returns and increasing knowledge.” -- Morris A. Adelman, economist, 1997

“Neither we, nor our grandchildren, nor their grandchildren will live to see the end of the oil era.” -- Karl-Heinz Schult-Bornemann, geologist, 1997

“And why do they believe that commodities will grow more scarce? For many people, the idea that resources are finite is at the source of this belief. But the idea of finiteness is a prejudice and it is not supported by available facts. Incredible as it may seem, the term 'finite' is not only inappropriate, it is downright misleading when applied to natural resources.” -- Julian L. Simon, economist, 1997

“The modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins is not controversial nor presently a matter of academic debate. The period of debate about this extensive body of knowledge has been over for approximately two decades (Simakov 1986).” -- Jack F. Kenney, geologist/geophysicist, 1996

“We now have in our hands—really, in our libraries—the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next seven billion years.” -- Julian L. Simon, economist, 1995

“As he [John Galey] once said, the only geologist who could tell with certainty whether oil would be found was “Dr. Drill.” -- Daniel Yergin, political scientist, 1992

“The great oil shortage is like the horizon, always receding as one moves toward it.” -- Morris A. Adelman, economist, 1991

“Stable carbon isotopes are not a reliable criterion for distinguishing biogenic from non-biogenic petroleum.” -- A.A. Giardini (geologist) and Charles E. Melton (chemist), 1991


“... the fact that we find that oil and gas exist on the other planetary bodies, obviously not due to biology, is completely ignored.” --Thomas Gold, astronomer/astrophysicist/cosmologist /geoscientist, 1989

“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth, if it be such as would obliged them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.” -- Thomas Gold, astronomer/astrophysicist/cosmologist /geoscientist, 1989

“The assumption of fixed, finite natural resources has caused many to make catastrophic predictions of resource exhaustion. Fortunately, where these prophecies have been sufficiently specific to be testable, the passage of time and events has falsified them.” -- Thomas R. DeGregori, economist, 1987

“Scientific consideration about the origin of hydrocarbons and practical results of geological investigations provide an understanding of the presence of enormous, inexhaustible resources of hydrocarbons.” -- Vladilen A. Krayushkin, geologist, 1986

“Every ten or fifteen years since the late 1800’s, 'experts' have predicted that oil reserves would last only ten more years. These experts have predicted nine out of the last zero oil-reserve exhaustions.” -- Charles Maurice (economist) and Charles W. Smithson (economist), 1984

“The general concept of petroleum formation by biogenic mechanisms has been firmly entrenched for a long time, but there has been no accumulation of convincing experimental evidence in support of this belief.” -- Charles E. Melton (chemist) and A.A. Giardini (geologist), 1983

“The suggestion that petroleum might have arisen from some transformation of squashed fish or biological detritus is surely the silliest notion to have been entertained by substantial numbers of persons over an extended period of time.” -- Fred Hoyle, cosmologist/astrophysicist, 1982

“I have gone to the best geologists and the best petroleum researchers, and I can give you the authoritative answer: No one knows [how biogenic origin is possible].” -- Edward Teller, physicist, 1979

“Next to nothing is known about the sources of the volatile components of magmas or how they are distributed and transported between the mantle and the shallow levels of the crust.” -- Howel Williams, geologist, 1979

“All giant oil fields are most logically explained by inorganic theory.” -- Vladimir B. Porfir'yev, geologist, 1974

“Ideas are the life blood of the science of petroleum.” -- Hollis D. Hedberg, geologist, 1969

“Statistical thermodynamic analysis has established clearly that hydrocarbon molecules which comprise petroleum require very high pressures for their spontaneous formation, comparable to the pressures required for the same of diamond. In that sense, hydrocarbon molecules are the high-pressure polymorphs of the reduced carbon system as is diamond of elemental carbon. Any notion which might suggest that hydrocarbon molecules spontaneously evolve in the regimes of temperature and pressure characterized by the near-surface of the Earth, which are the regimes of methane creation and hydrocarbon destruction, does not even deserve consideration.” -- Emmanuil B. Chekaliuk, geologist/physicist, 1968

“Geologists engaged in the search for oil and gas fields ought now to begin reappraising the facts at their disposal and analyzing them from positions of crustal fault tectonics.” -- Ivan I. Chebanenko, geologist, 1966

“The geologist played a secondary role to geophysics and has been playing a secondary role for a long time--in fact, because geophysics has been doing the thinking for him, the cranial substance of the geologist has been under constant sedation for over 35 years.” -- Michel T. Halbouty, geologist, 1966

“This sad state of affairs has not been brought on by lack of undiscovered oil in the ground--it is the result of a drastic decline in the industry's effort to locate undiscovered oil in the United States.” -- Michel T. Halbouty, geologist, 1966

“It is remarkable that in spite of its widespread occurence, its great economic importance, and the immense amount of fine research devoted to it, there perhaps still remain more incertainties concerning the origin of petroleum than that of any other occurring natural substance.” -- H. D. Hedberg, 1964

“Actually it cannot be too strongly emphasized that petroleum does not present the composition picture expected from modified biogenic products, and all the arguments from the constituents of ancient oils fit equally well, or better, with the conception of a primordial hydrocarbon mixture to which bio-products have been added.” -- Sir Robert Robinson, chemist, 1963


“Several times in the past we have thought we were running out of oil whereas actually we were only running out of ideas.” -- Parke A. Dickey, geologist, 1958

“The overwhelming preponderance of geological evidence compels the conclusion that crude oil and natural petroleum gas have no intrinsic connection with biological matter originating near the surface of the Earth. They are primordial materials which have been erupted from great depths.” -- Vladimir B. Porfir'yev, geologist, 1956

“Oil is found in the minds of men.” -- Wallace E. Pratt, geologist, 1952

“Oil is the creature of direct action of common earth forces on common earth materials.” -- Wallace E. Pratt, geologist, 1942

“When in 1915 the driller of a 'wild-cat' well reported granite at 1100 feet, or so, right in the middle of the state [Kansas], we were not only skeptical; we were indignant. We denied that the well had granite; and when the driller, under our supervision, bailed out of the well fragments of beautiful pink granite, we charged that he had planted the granite in there himself.” -- Wallace E. Pratt, geologist, 1942

“Resources are not; they become.” -- Erich W. Zimmerman, economist, 1933

“Frankly, there is no shortage of oil, simply a shortage of effort to get it out of the ground.” -- A.C. Bedford, geologist, 1917

“All the petroleum, natural gas, and bituminous fields or deposits cannot be regarded as anything else but the products of solfotaric volcanic emanations condensed and held in their passage upward in the porous tanks of all ages of the crust of the earth from the Archaean rocks to the Quaternary. Nothing is so simple and therefore nothing so natural as this origin, and we will see that it can be abundantly proven.” -- Eugene Coste, geologist, 1903

“Only Dr. Drill knows for sure.” -- John H. Galey, geologist, date unknown

“It is a singular and notable fact that, while most other branches of science have emancipated themselves from the trammels of metaphysical reasoning, the science of geology still remains imprisoned in 'a priori' theories.” -- Sir Henry H. Howorth, geologist, 1895

“It is obvious that the total amount of petroleum in the rocks underlying the surface ... is large beyond computation.” -- Edward Orton, geologist, 1888

“The origin of petroleum is unknown.” -- F.A. Genth, geologist, 1878

“The capital fact to note is that petroleum was born in the depths of the Earth, and it is only there that we must seek its origin.” -- Dmitri Mendeleyev, chemist, 1877

“It may be supposed that naphta was produced by the action of water penetrating through the crevices of the strata during the upheaval of mountain chains because water with iron carbide ought to give iron oxide and hydrocarbons.” -- Dmitri Mendeleyev, chemist, 1877

“Whether naphta was formed by organic matter is very doubtful, as it is found in the most ancient Silurian [Ordovician] strata which correspond with the epochs of the earth's existence when there was very little organic matter; it could not penetrate from the higher to the lower (more ancient) strata as it floats on water (and water penetrates through all strata).” -- Dmitri Mendeleyev, chemist, 1877

“Do these fuels result always and necessarily in one way from the decomposition of a pre-existing organic substance? Is it thus with the hydrocarbons so frequently observed in volcanic eruptions and emanations, and to which M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville has called attention in recent years? Finally, must one assign a parralel origin to carbonaceous matter and to hydrocarbons contained in certain meteorites, and which appear to have an origin foreign to our planet? These are questions on which the opinion of many distinguished geologists does not as yet appear to be fixed.” -- Marcellin Berthelot, chemist, 1866

“One can, then, conceive the production, by purely mineral means, of all natural hydrocarbons. The intervention of heat, of water, and of alkaline metals -- lastly, the tendency of hydrocarbons to unite together to form the more condensed material -- suffice to account for the formation of these curious compounds. Moreover, this formation will be continuous because the reactions which started it are renewed incessantly.” -- Marcellin Berthelot, chemist, 1866

“The hydrogen gas evolved from volcanoes, or from chasms in the earth during earthquakes, is generally combined with sulphur or carbon; it is probably formed by the decompostion of water, when it finds access to subterranean fire.” -- Robert Bakewell, geologist, 1813

“Petroleum is the product of a distillation from great depth and issues from the primitive rocks beneath which the forces of all volcanic action lie.” -- Alexander Von Humboldt, naturalist, 1804

“We cannot doubt of this distilling operation in the mineral regions, when we consider that in most places of the earth we find the evident effects of such distillation of oily substances in the naphta and petroleum that are constantly emitted along with water in certain springs. These oily substances are no other than such as may be procured, in a similar manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal strata; we have therefore every proof of this mineral operation that the nature of things admit of. We have also sufficient evidence that those fusible and inflammable coals, which have not been distilled to a caput mortuum, had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous heat, because we find those fusible coals subject to be injected with pyrites, as well as the more perfect coal.” -- James Hutton, naturalist, 1795

“Rock oil originates as tiny bodies of  animals buried in the sediments which,under the influence of increased temperature and  pressure acting during an unimaginably long period of time, transform into rock oil.” -- Mikhail Lomonossov, Russian scholar scientist, 1757

“At this stage you must admit that whatever is seen to be sentient is nevertheless composed of atoms that are insentient. The phenomena open to our observation do not contradict this conclusion or conflict with it. Rather they lead us by the hand and compel us to believe that the animate is born, as I maintain, of the insentient.” -- Titus Lucretius Carus, philosopher, 50 BC