Why has it been so difficult to put this GENIE (Oil & Gas) back into the bottle (Macondo Prospect, Gulf of Mexico)? Or at least keep any more of him from coming out?
There are many reasons, on many different levels, but let's start with BP and the culture of corporate superiority that has evolved at this corporate behemoth since its founding in 1908. We're talking about the granddaddy here the Anglo-Persian Oil Company which was the first to develop the oil and gas reserves discovered in the Middle East. Simply put, when you're the biggest and the oldest in that neck of the woods, you get used to doing it your way, and ONLY your way.
Well, British Petroleum's way of developing oil and gas throughout their planetary stomping grounds (Planet BP -- a BP online, in-house magazine) is known to many insiders and outsiders alike by the catchphrase that goes like this "OPERATE TO FAILURE"
Incidentally, this piece in no way excuses the US Federal Government for their huge part in this global calamity. They have, in fact, variously acted as enabler, co-dependent and full-time accomplice in the execution of this crime against humanity and the planet, Herself. By its actions and inaction, the US Gov't (EPA, Departments of Energy, Interior, Homeland Security, US Congress, US Judiciary and the White House) has been identified by many as an indicted co-conspirator in this unprecedented crime against a whole region of the USA. Rather shocking, but true as the evidence which currently exists in the public domain bears out.
Back to the GENIE. He's out in more ways than one and we speak particularly of the raging debate regarding the abiogenic origin of petroleum. Let's let the real experts tell us the real story about where oil and gas really come from. Highly esteemed Russian researcher, Dmitri Mendeleev, is described as follows by Wikipedia. Perhaps we ought to listen carefully to him.
"Mendeleev made other important contributions to chemistry. The Russian chemist and science historian L.A. Tchugayev has characterized him as "a chemist of genius, first-class physicist, a fruitful researcher in the fields of hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, certain branches of chemical technology (explosives, petroleum, and fuels, for example) and other disciplines adjacent to chemistry and physics, a thorough expert of chemical industry and industry in general, and an original thinker in the field of economy." Mendeleev was one of the founders, in 1869, of the Russian Chemical Society."
Here's what Dmitri has to say about the abiogenic source of hydrocarbons in his tract entitled THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM:
"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." (D. Mendeleev, 1877){{ref|Mendeleev}}
Mendeleev, D., 1877. L'Origine du pà ©trole. Revue Scientifique, second series, VIII, p. 409416
Following is a very brief history of the Abiogenic Theory of Petroleum, which can be found at the following link:
http://tripatlas.com/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
HISTORY OF ABIOGENIC THEORY:
"The abiogenic petroleum theory was founded upon several old interpretations of geology which stem from early 19th century notions of magmatism (which at the time was attributed to sulfur fires and bitumen burning underground) and of petroleum, which was seen by many to fuel volcanoes. Indeed, Wernerian appreciation of basalts at times saw them as solidified oils or bitumen. While these notions have been disabused, the basic notion that petroleum is associated with magmatism has persisted. The chief proponents of what would become the abiogenic theory were Mendeleev[5] and Berthelot.
Russian geologist Nikolai Alexandrovitch Kudryavtsev was the first to propose the modern abiotic theory of petroleum in 1951. He analyzed the geology of the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada and concluded that no "source rocks" could form the enormous volume of hydrocarbons (estimated today 1.7 trillions barrels), and that therefore the most plausible explanation is abiotic deep petroleum. However, humic coals have been proposed for the source rocks by Stanton (2005).
Although this theory is supported by geologists in Russia and Ukraine, it has recently begun to receive attention in the West, where the biogenic petroleum theory is accepted by the vast majority of petroleum geologists. Kudryavtsev's work was continued by many Russian researchers -- Petr N. Kropotkin, Vladimir B. Porfir'ev, Emmanuil B. Chekaliuk, Vladilen A. Krayushkin, Georgi E. Boyko, Georgi I. Voitov, Grygori N. Dolenko, Iona V. Greenberg, Nikolai S. Beskrovny, Victor F. Linetsky and many others.
Astrophysicist Thomas Gold 1 was one of the abiogenic theory's most prominent proponents in recent years in the West, until his death in 2004. Dr. Jack Kenney of Gas Resources Corporation[6][7][8] is perhaps the foremost proponent in the West. The theory receives continued attention in the media as well as in scientific publications."
FOUNDATIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS:
"Within the mantle, carbon may exist as hydrocarbon molecules, chiefly methane, and as elemental carbon, carbon dioxide and carbonates. The abiotic hypothesis is that a full suite of hydrocarbons found in petroleum can be generated in the mantle by abiogenic processes,8 and these hydrocarbons can migrate out of the mantle into the crust until they escape to the surface or are trapped by impermeable strata, forming petroleum reservoirs.
Abiogenic theories reject the supposition that certain molecules found within petroleum, known as "biomarkers," are indicative of the biological origin of petroleum. They contend that some of these molecules could have come from the microbes that the petroleum encounters in its upward migration through the crust, and that some of them are found in meteorites, which have presumably never contacted living material, and that some can be generated by plausible reactions in petroleum abiogenically.7"
The hypothesis stated above is founded primarily upon the following conclusive and quite compelling evidence:
Proponents: Item:
Gold: The ubiquity of methane within the solar system
Gold: The presence of hydrocarbons in extraterrestrial bodies including meteors, moons and comets [9][10]
Gold, Kenney: Plausible mechanisms of abiotically chemically synthesizing hydrocarbons within the mantle [6][7][8]
Kudryavtsev, Gold: Hydrocarbon-rich areas tend to be hydrocarbon-rich at many different levels (Kudryavtsev's Rule)
Kudryavtsev, Gold: Petroleum and methane deposits are found in large patterns related to deep-seated large-scale structural features of the crust rather than to the patchwork of sedimentary deposits
Gold : Interpretations of the chemical and isotopic composition of natural petroleum
Kudryavtsev, Gold: The presence of oil and methane within non-sedimentary rocks upon the Earth [14]
Gold: The existence of methane hydrate deposits
Gold: Perceived ambiguity in some assumptions and key evidence used in the orthodox biogenic petroleum theories 6
Gold: Bituminous coal creation is based upon deep hydrocarbon seeps
Kudryavtsev: Inability to create petroleum-like material from organic material at the time the theories were created
Gold Surface carbon budget and oxygen levels stable over geologic time scales
Kudryavtsev, Gold: Biogenic theories do not explain some hydrocarbon deposit characteristics
Szatmari: The distribution of metals in crude oils fits better with upper serpentinized mantle, primitive mantle and chondrite patterns than oceanic and continental crust, and show no correlation with sea water[15]
Gold: The association of hydrocarbons with helium, which is not used in biology
Gold: Deep microbial hypothesis of hydrocarbon generation
Another important exposition on the matter comes from Samar Abbas, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India and his paper entitled:
NON-ORGANIC THEORY OF THE GENESIS OF PETROLEUM, which can be found at:
click here
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