Scratching the Surface of Global Hydrocarbons
It is odd that the vast size of global hydrocarbon resource is largely overlooked in the many discussions of "peak oil" and "resource depletion." It almost seems as if persons of influence would prefer to forget all about the huge resources which are out there waiting for humans to find, retrieve, and develop.
The image above was taken from a 1997 assessment of global hydrocarbon resources by Rogner (PDF). As you can see on the left, the amount of hydrocarbon already consumed by humans is negligible in comparison to all the hydrocarbon reserves and resources still remaining.
Recent large discoveries of oil off Brazil and Norway, plus the discovery of huge unconventional gas resources worldwide, added to the already incomprehensibly large resources of coal, unconventional oil, and methane hydrates -- and one's mind is in danger of boggling from all the hydrocarbon that has been sitting around waiting for someone to notice it.
But wait! That's not all. The planet itself is busy making more hydrocarbon, while you are sleeping -- deep in the hot pressured mantle. Some of this hydrocarbon is constantly migrating upward into the crust, providing vast future resources for intelligent beings to discover down the road.
And we have not even mentioned the immeasurable resources of uranium and thorium, waiting at our beck and call -- as soon as our bureaucratic obstructionists in government get out of the way of safe, new, more economical reactor construction.
What about enhanced geothermal? Orbital solar? Low energy nuclear reactions? etc etc. It is almost enough to make one forget about peak oil doom.
Labels: Peak energy, peak oil
posted by al fin at 10:41 am
3 Comments:
Yes, this is Thomas Gold's Deep Hot Biosphere. The abiogenic origin of most hydrocarbons. I think the guy was right.
The abiogenic process seems to apply mostly to short chain hydrocarbons from methane to pentane. Think "wet gas" rather than crude oil.
Of course if they find large deposits of crude oil on Titan, my viewpoint might have to be modified. ;-)
Biogenic and abiogenic hydrocarbons can easily mix in the crust, caught in some of the same traps.
What you are saying is that the Ivory Towers of Scilence have been lying to price-fix oil and gas.
When I went on a hunger strike over this issue in 2008, every major University's geology dept. in California let me starve.
Later, the secret police utterly destroyed my life.
Are you certain you want to pursue these ideas?
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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