THERE MAY BE OIL IN YOUR BACK YARD

DON'T SELL YOUR MINERAL RIGHTS!

Yes, you may be standing over a substantial fossil fuel deposit at this moment.
Well, maybe it's not in the form you can use in your car, but how about crude oil,
natural gas, coal, oil shale or even diamonds, all of them examples of fossilized
carbon. It has been estimated (1) that if all the fossilized carbon on earth were
evenly distributed, there would be about 1-1/2 pounds of it under every square
inch of the earth's surface.

How do we know this? The story begins very early in the earth's history, perhaps
shortly after it cooled down sufficiently to have liquid water on its surface. The
atmosphere was completely different from what we experience today. It was more
like that of our sister planet, Venus (2), that is, it consisted of over 90
percent carbon dioxide, a substantial amount of sulfur dioxide, about one percent
nitrogen, and the total atmospheric pressure was about 90 times what we experience
today, or over 1300 p.s.i. (pounds per square inch). The gases in this ancient
atmosphere resulted from volcanic out-gassing, probably in about the same
proportions that we observe from today's volcanoes.

Perhaps you noticed a lack of molecular oxygen, the stuff we breathe and need for
life, in this ancient air. Just as on Venus and other planets of our solar system,
our earth started out without any molecular oxygen. This substance is highly
reactive and forms stable compounds with most other elements, in particular iron,
the most common element of the earth as a whole. The surface of Mars we know to be
covered with iron oxide, and its atmosphere contains no molecular oxygen. Perhaps
the earth's surface looked like that at one time.

By some miracle, life form(s) got their start in this thick awful atmosphere and
thrived by using photosynthesis. As we recall from high school biology, some
bacteria and plants use photosynthesis to generate molecular oxygen and
carbohydrates from water and carbon dioxide as a first step. Carbohydrates would
be a fossil fuel, but they are liable to be quickly reduced to hydrocarbons such
as methane by anaerobic life forms (life that thrives in the absence of molecular
oxygen).

Over time, the remains of these ancient life forms accumulated and were buried by
sediments to great depths. The molecular oxygen became a minor constituent in the
ancient high pressure atmosphere, probably less than one percent. In time, other
life forms developed that used carbon dioxide from the air or water to form
calcium carbonate skeletons or shells, even as clams do today. This process does
not generate molecular oxygen, but on a great scale it was able absorb almost all
of the carbon dioxide in the ancient atmosphere, and we find its result today as
enormous deposits of carbonate rocks, such as limestone, in some places over two
miles thick. Today, all that is left of the carbon dioxide of that ancient
atmosphere is 0.035 percent, while the nitrogen has increased to 79 percent from
its original one percent, and the molecular oxygen has gone from zero to 21
percent. Of course, the total pressure of the Earth's atmosphere has decreased
markedly over time, from roughly 1300 p.s.i. to the present day value of 14.7
p.s.i..

Since we know almost exactly the total amount of molecular oxygen we have in our
atmosphere, and the ratio of fossil carbon to molecular oxygen as 0.375/1, we can
easily calculate the amount of still buried fossil carbon on earth. It is a huge
number (3) best appreciated by considering it in comparison to the amount of
fossil carbon used on earth in the last 150 years. During that period the amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 105 parts per million (ppm).
Assuming that this increase was due to human activity, I calculate that it only
amounts to 0.03 percent of the fossil carbon still extant.

These numbers indicate that actual fossil fuel reserves are far larger than
current estimates, especially for hydrocarbons such as oil and natural gas. When I
tried to introduce this theory, some 25 years ago, to the geologists at the major
oil company where I spent my professional scientific career, I received no
response. However, geologists required over 50 years to become convinced of
“continental drift” (4), now known as “tectonic plate theory“, and I decided they
were suffering from NIH, the “not invented here” syndrome.

Since then, I have been puzzling why oil and gas companies around the world have
been unable to find these reserves, even by accident. I have concluded that since
these deposits are much older than conventionally accepted, that they should also
be much deeper in the earth's crust, and perhaps beyond current drilling
technology.

A corollary of this concept recently occurred to me, that in fact, most if not all
of the oil and gas deposits we currently exploit are merely leakages from the
primary reserves buried much deeper. This would explain why concentrations of oil
and gas are found randomly distributed around the world. Many of these leaks have
resealed over time, and the relatively shallow secondary reservoirs have become
depleted after long time production, but some, as in Saudi Arabia, appear to be
still keeping up with the production rate. Consider that, until quite recently,
most oil deposits were found where oil had leaked to the surface of the earth.
This suggests to me that the most likely place to find new oil is where oil was
produced before, but only to drill much deeper in order to penetrate the primary
reservoir.

Ultra-deep drilling and production is very expensive and has to compete with very
low oil production costs in Saudi Arabia (about $2/barrel). Commercial companies
have been loath to take the risks involved. It may take some form of government
incentive, justified by national energy independence, to encourage private
industry to establish the technology for, and the potential of, this vast energy
resource literally beneath our feet.

Perhaps we should put our tax dollars into exploring the subsurface of our own
planet rather than putting a man on Mars. The bottom line is that man will
eventually tap this hidden resource, and the world will continue to have abundant
carbon fossil fuel for many generations to come.

Footnotes:
#1)Alan E. Thompson, “Global Strategies Forum”, see website
http://www.wfs.org/thompson03.htm
2) “Atmosphere of Venus”, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus
3)Total Fossil Carbon = 5 x 10exp14 tons
4) “Continental Drift”, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift

Postscript: The lack of water on our sister planet Venus has puzzled scientists
ever since the first planetary probe. Inasmuch as “Life” has transformed the
atmosphere and surface of the earth so dramatically, I believe it will inevitably
also be shown to be the savior of the abundant liquid water we enjoy.

Russell Reinhard
PhD. Pennsylvania State Univ.
Chemistry 1961
rcube.fl@gmail.com

07/23/09 11:14:08 AM