Abiotic oil : The mystery of Eugene island 330

2005-10-16

Richard Moore

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http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf124/sf124p10.htm

Science Frontiers ONLINE
No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 

The mystery of Eugene island 330

Eugene Island is a submerged mountain in the Gulf of Mexico
about 80 miles off the Louisiana coast. The landscape of
Eugene Island is riven with deep fissures and faults from
which spew spontaneous belches of gas and oil. Up on the
surface, a platform designated Eugene Island 330 began
producing about 15,000 barrels of oil per day in the early
1970s. By 1989, the flow had dwindled to 4,000 barrels per
day. Then, suddenly, production zoomed to 13,000 barrels. In
addition, estimated reserves rocketed from 60 to 400 million
barrels. Even more anomalous is the discovery that the
geological age of today's oil is quite different from that
recovered 10 years ago. What's going on under the Gulf of
Mexico?

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the oil reservoir
at Eugene Island is rapidly refilling itself from "some
continuous source miles below the earth's surface." In support
of this surmise, analysis of seismic records revealed a deep
fault which "was gushing oil like a garden hose."

The deep-seated oil source at Eugene Island strongly supports
T. Gold's theory about The Deep Hot Biosphere. Gold holds:

"that oil is actually a renewable, primordial syrup
continually manufactured by the earth under ultrahot
conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance
migrates toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria,
making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the
dinosaurs."

The apparent deep-seated oil source at Eugene Island and
Gold's ideas make petroleum engineers wonder about a similar
situation at the seemingly inexhaustible oil fields of the
Middle East.

"The Middle East has more than doubled its reserves in the
past 20 years, despite half a century of intense exploitation
and relatively few new discoveries. It would take a pretty big
pile of dead dinosaurs and prehistoric plants to account for
the estimated 660 billion barrels of oil in the region, notes
Norman Hyne, a professor at the University of Tulsa in
Oklahoma. "Offthe-wall theories often turn out to be right,"
he says."

(Cooper, Christopher; "It's No Crude Joke: This Oil Field
Grows Even as It's Tapped," Wall Street Journal, April 16,
1999. Cr. C. Casale.)

© 1999-2000 WilliamR. Corliss