They can be dead wrong about the way rocks form, and why oil is found where it is, and still find the oil. The child who thinks the Easter bunny hid the eggs is no less likely to find them than the child who knows Mom and Dad hid them. Maybe it is because they have seen the Sinclair Dinosaur at 2,600 gas stations and convenience stores in twenty-two states in the West and Midwest. How Petroleum Was Formed Organic Theory . No one really knows how petroleum was formed.
Most scientists believe the organic theory.
It says that petroleum was formed through millions of years in great oceans that covered many parts of the earth during prehistoric times. Tiny plants and animals lived in shallow water and along the coasts of seas, just as they do today. As these plants and animals died, their remains settled on the muddy bottoms of the oceans. Here, even smaller forms of life called bacteria caused them to decay. Fine sand and mud, called sediments , drifted down over the plant and animal matter.