RE: Oil Found Beneath the Pre-Cambrian?

Ed wrote:

> BILL: Can this be possible? Can it save us from the
> news about havnig reached Hubbert's Peak? A friend of
> mine said he saw a report about Russians drilling 8
> miles deep and finding oil well below the precambrian
> period, indicating that the theory that oil results
> from plant biomass under pressure may be wrong or may
> have a companion process that works without plants.
> It may be that oil is recycled from carbon dioxide
> absorbed by the oceans and deposited in the sea bed
> where oil is created by high temperature and pressure
> as the sea bed subducts under continental plates. It
> then oozes its way into relatively low pressure zones
> through fissures where it pools for extraction and
> combustion by humans. Hence, to fully recycle oil, we
> must dump all of the polymers and other chemicals
> produced from oil into the ocean near subduction zones
> along with nuclear waste encapsulated in glass.

Ed, you AND your friend, Brannon (comments excised here), are wrong.

Oil is NOT recycled carbon dioxide. It is far too complex for that.

Your friend Brannon says that reports of Precambrian oil have not been peer
reviewed. They have been. There is oil deep into the Precambrian, but it
doesn't seem to come necessarily from inorganic sources. Some of the deeper
claims of oil have been quite controversial. But, there is indeed oil in the
Precambrian but it won't save us from Hubbert's peak.

Here is what the American Association of Petroleum Geologists said in 1985:

"Significant amounts of oil and gas condensate have been produced from 900
million to 1.3 billion-year-old Precambrian rocks in eastern Siberian
petroleum provinces since the 1960's. The Markova Field in the
Lena-Tunguska Province of the Soviet Union has been producing from
Precambrian rocks since 1962.
        "This production is not just a 'small curiosity' Boberg emphasized.
The eastern Siberian provinces already contain numerous giant oil fields and
much of the region has not been explored because it is too far from the main
transportation route, he added.
        "Both oil and gas production have been recorded from Precambrian
rocks in the Szechwan Basin of China. The Amadeus Basin of Australia has
produced gas from the Precambrian. Although there are no published reports,
Boberg said he has been told by a number of people who have worked on the
south Arabian platform that there is Precambrian production in that area." ~
Kathy Shirley, "Wildcat Tests Precambrian Gas", AAPG Explorer, August 1985,
p. 12.

 One must be careful to distinguish oil source from oil reservoir. Just
because oil is found in Precambrian rocks doesn't mean it is Precambrian
oil. The reason is that often Precambrian blocks of rock are thrust up into
an overlying source rock or placed in juxtaposition with source rocks. The
oil generated by the source rock then moves laterally (horizontally not
down) into the Precambrian reservoir rocks. Zhuang Xi field in China is
producing oil from 2.6 billion year old fractured gneiss.The company which
operates that field was in my office in Beijing last week telling me that
they have 5000 bbl/d out of this igneous reservoir. The oil is Eocene in
age from the Shahejie formation. This field is on the southern shore of the
Bohai bay.

Now, there is also some evidence of Precambrian oil from Precambrian source
rocks. Beneath the sediments of the mid-continent of the US, there is a huge
graben, the Precambrian rift. In it is the Nonesuch formation.

"The Nonesuch is composed of thin black,
evenly laminated shales and siltstones. Thin sections show
that it is organically rich..." Carol Kindle Lee S. Duff Kerr,
"Mid-continent Rift- a
Frontier Oil Province", Oil and Gas Journal, (August 13,
1984), p. 144-150, p. 148.

The Nonesuch shale drips oil when it is encountered in mines, such as the
White Pine Copper Mine in Michigan. Hunt, Petroleum Geochemistry and
Geology, W. H. Freeman, 1996, p. 16-17

China has produced Precambrian oil for a long time.

"Abundant Precambrian oil and gas occurring mainly in two large basins,
Sichuan basin in southwestern China and Bohai Bay basin in northern China,
account for a considerable portion of the reserves and production in China.
The Precambrian producing formations are all carbonates. Weiyuan gas field
in Sichuan basin is one of the large gas fields in China. Its gas is
produced primarily from the dolomite of the Dengying Formation (Sinian
System) and was generated chiefly in the algal dolomite of the same system.
However, a deeper origin for the gas cannot be ruled out. Renqiu oil field
in Bohai Bay basin, a buried-hill oil field, is also one of the largest oil
fields in China. The oil is produced primarily from the dolomite of the
Wumishan Formation of the middle-upper Proterozoic and was generated chiefly
in the Oligocene Shahejie Formation. It is also possible that the oil was
partly sourced by middle-upper Proterozoic rocks. In addition, many oil and
gas shows have been found in the middle-upper Proterozoic of the Yanshan
fold-belt at the northern margin of the Bohai Bay basin. According to an
organic geochemical study, the middle-upper Proterozoic in the area has a
good potential for hydrocarbon generation, and formation conditions for
indigenous hydrocarbon accumulation should exist in the Bohai Bay basin and
nearby Yanshan foldbelt. From the analyses of hydrocarbon generation,
reservoir, cap rock, trapping, and preservation, the presentation
systematically describes the petroleum geological features and hydrocarbon
prospects of the Precambrian in China." Sisheng Hao ; Guangdi Liu
"Precambrian oil and gas in China," AAPG 73(1989):3:412

In the AAPG in 1965 there was an article by Grover Murray, a well respected
geologist who said:

"In June, 1963, Exoil Pty. Ltd, and partners abandoned their Ooraminna NO. 1
Well in the Amadeus Basin of Central Australia. This test was not only the
initial exploratory drilling venture in that basin but it represents, to my
knowledge, the first well ever deliberately programmed to search for oil and
gas in Proterozoic sedimentary rocks outside of Russia. It commenced in the
basal Cambrian Arumbera Sandstone, entered the Proterozoic sedimentary rocks
at 15,25 feet, and was bottomed in Proterozoic salt at total depth of 6,105
feet (Schlumberger).
        "The Proterozoic rocks consisted, in descending order, of (1) thick
black to green shale, parts of which yielded sufficient hydrocarbons on
analysis by Olexcon International of The Hague to be considered commercial
source rock of moderate quality; (2) a variable sequence of limestone,
sandstone, siltstone, and shale, containing a basaltic flow; (3) cherty
dolomite; and (4) rock salt with red shale inclusions.
        "A drill-stem test of 18 feet of dolomitic limestone between 3,768
and 3,784 feet yielded an estimated 12 MCF/D of methane with minor amounts
of propane. Unfortunately this limestone constituted the only effective
porosity in the Proterozoic sequence penetrated by the Ooraminna well. Had
any appreciable porosity been encountered, commercial quantities of
hydrocarbons could well have been present."
        "This flow of gas constitutes the first irrefutable evidence of
indigenous hydrocarbons in the Precambrian of Central Australa, . . ." G. E.
Murray, "Indigenous Precambrian Petroleum," AAPG Bulletin, 49(1965):1, p.
3.

"In 1994, two wildcat wells penetrated Precambrian(?) phyllite and reddish
brown sandstone of the Chuar(?) Group in southern Utah. Live oil present in
the wells in the Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone is geochemically similar to
bitumen extracts from the Chuar Group in the Grand canyon area, but the oils
are significantly different chemically from the White Rim tar sands." J. E.
Huntoon, P. L. Hansley and N. D. Naeser, "The Search for a Source Rock for
the Giant Tar Sand Triangle Accumulation, Southeastern Utah, Bulletin,
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 83(1999):3:467-495, p. 478-479

Here are some Precambrian bitumen analyses

bitumen Rodda bed Officer Basin Vendian(620 myr .22
bitumen Sweden Sturtian .14
bitumen Amadeus Basin Sturtian(850 myr) .15
bitumen Amadeus Basin Sturtian (850 myr) .23
bitumen McArthur basin Austr.Riphean .16
bitumen N. Austr. e. Proterozoic ~1650 myr .36
bitumen N. Austr. E. Proterozoic ~ 1800 myr <.1
Mark A. Mcaffrey et al, "Paleoenvironmental Implications of novel C30
steranes in Precambrian to Cenozoic age Petroleum and Bitumen," Geochemica
et Cosmochimica Acta 58(1994):529-532, p. 531

I would point anyone to John M. Hunt's 1996 Book Petroleum Geochemistry and
Geology, W. H. Freeman, p. 16-18 for info on Precambrian relict oil fields.

Your friend should have searched on Precambrian oil.
Received on Mon May 30 14:09:00 2005