[Scotsman]

A cold day in Hades or what?

Is The Earth Producing MORE Oil?

Lost in the big news last week -- the race for the Democratic nomination, the reeling U.S. economy, the ongoing life/death saga that is "Dancing with the Stars" -- came word that a new deep-water exploration area off the coast of Brazil could contain as much as 33 billion barrels of oil. How much is that? If estimates are accurate, the Brazilian find would amount to the world’s third-largest oil reserve. In comparison, the U.S. has proven oil reserves of 21.8 billion barrels.

Just what the latest Brazil find (dubbed "Sugarloaf Mountain") could mean to our oil-ravenous world isn’t yet completely clear, but the Associated Press quoted Roger Read, an energy analyst at New York-based investment bank Natixis Bleichroeder Inc., as saying, "This would lay to rest some of the peak oil pronouncements that we were out of oil, that we weren't going to find any more, and that we have to change our way of life."
Thomas Gold

The find also brings up a name worth remembering: Thomas Gold. The Austrian-born astrophysicist, who died in 2004, was a renowned maverick in the science community, a brilliant rogue whose anti-establishment proclamations were often proven right. For instance, in the 1960s, as NASA began its assault on the moon, many scientists debated whether the moon's surface was comprised of hard rock or might in fact be a layer of dust so thick that, upon touchdown, the Apollo lunar modules would sink out of sight. Gold, studying evidence from microimpacts, moon cratering, electrostatic fields, and more, boldly predicted that the astronauts' boots would sink into the lunar regolith no more than three centimeters. And, give or take a centimeter or so, he was proven right.

What does Gold have to do with the recent Brazil oil find? In 1999, Gold published "The Deep Hot Biosphere," a paper that postulated that coal and oil are produced not by the decomposition of organic materials, but in fact are "abiogenic" -- the product of tectonic forces; i.e., deeply embedded hydrocarbons being brought up and through the earth's mantle and transformed into their present states by bacteria living in the earth's crust.

The majority of the world’s scientists scoff at Gold's theory, and "fossil fuel" remains the accepted descriptor of oil. Yet in recent years Russia has quietly become the world's top producer of oil, in part by drilling wells as deep as 40,000 feet -- far below the graveyards of T-Rex and his Mesozoic buddies.

Is it possible that Thomas Gold was right again, and that the earth is actually still producing oil? It's tantalizing to think so. Meantime, whether or not Brazil's recent find adds support to Gold's theory, for sure it's good news for Brazilians: Government-run Petrobras is one of the world's leaders in ultra-deep offshore oil extraction, and Sugarloaf Mountain alone could transform Brazil into another Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

For now, stay tuned. The earth may yet prove to have a heart of Gold.

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6245781/...oil/index.html

[Mr. Wyndham]

Whether or not we keep finding these reserves...we still need to change our energy sources, and become energy independant. Oil is too unstable as far as economics go.

[Mindz]

This was found about 8 months ago. I've stated it in a few of my posts. I agree with dragon, but it should drop the price of oil a dollar or two for like 5 years...

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Whether or not we keep finding these reserves...we still need to change our energy sources, and become energy independant. Oil is too unstable as far as economics go.

[The_Stache]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Whether or not we keep finding these reserves...we still need to change our energy sources, and become energy independant. Oil is too unstable as far as economics go.

Oil as a commodity is not unstable... Its the traders that deal in "futures". In otherwords they trade in "future" oil. And since everyone assumes oil is a limited the price will ALWAYS go up.

Look at the silver market back in the 70's when futures where traded on them.. silver hit well over 100 an ounce.. and when the us disallowed futures on silver the price dropped to under 20 an ounce and has stayed there for decades.

The same thing will happen to oil, we just need to get rid of those damn "futures"

[SilverTurtle]

Originally Posted by diarmadhi

Oil as a commodity is not unstable... Its the traders that deal in "futures". In otherwords they trade in "future" oil. And since everyone assumes oil is a limited the price will ALWAYS go up.

Look at the silver market back in the 70's when futures where traded on them.. silver hit well over 100 an ounce.. and when the us disallowed futures on silver the price dropped to under 20 an ounce and has stayed there for decades.

The same thing will happen to oil, we just need to get rid of those damn "futures"

[DGthe3]

I am skeptical of this BUT the man has been proven right too many times to be ignored. the moon is only 1 example, he has several other wild claims that have been verified. I can't remember them off the top of my head, and I am too tired to search for them

[TheMadHatter99]

Shale oil FTW

[TAG UR IT]

And don't forget about our deep ocean drilling in the gulf. That's going to produce a hell of a lot of oil for us too........if they can ever get around all the environmentalists...

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Whether or not we keep finding these reserves...we still need to change our energy sources, and become energy independant. Oil is too unstable as far as economics go.

I strongly agree. For both political and economic reasons, the West needs independence from the turbulent forces that lead to economic recession, terrorism, and war. OPEC is a leading cause of political strife, and independence from their resources would do us all good. Maybe they'll straighten up when their supply isn't in so much demand. Until then, we need to seek other means of power in conjunction with making the ones we already have more efficient. Efficiency is always good.

[swazworth]

this theory at least to me makes a lot of sense. it's not like all the dinosaurs went over to the middle east to die and become oil. yes i'm simplifying this.

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by swazworth

this theory at least to me makes a lot of sense. it's not like all the dinosaurs went over to the middle east to die and become oil. yes i'm simplifying this.

no, but with plate techtonics and all the plant life abundant at that time, and given the fact that some major places of dino remains are under water or other wise pushed so far down, they are melted back into the mantle, its possible.

remember land before time? the middle east could be the "great valley" lol