page_title: Abiogenic petroleum origin
section_title: Incidental arguments against abiogenic oil
hierarchical_section_title: Abiogenic petroleum origin / Geological arguments / Incidental arguments against abiogenic oil
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil endowment (cumulative production plus remaining reserves and undiscovered resources) for provinces assessed. Darker green indicates more resources. United States areas are not included. Original Caption: Figure 1. Oil endowment (cumulative production plus remaining reserves and undiscovered resources) for provinces assessed. Darker green indicates more resources. Areas: 1: Former Soviet Union 2: Middle East and North Africa 3: Asia Pacific 4: Europe 5: North America 6: Central and South America 7: Sub-Saharan Africa and Antarctica 8: South Asia
context_page_description: Abiogenic petroleum origin is a body of hypotheses which propose that petroleum and natural gas deposits are mostly formed by inorganic means, rather than by the decomposition of organisms. Thomas Gold's deep gas hypothesis states that the origin of some natural gas deposits were formed out of hydrocarbons deep in the earth's mantle. Theories explaining the origin of petroleum as abiotic, however, are generally not well accepted by the scientific community, and are rejected by most researchers and scientific theories on the subject.
  Earlier studies of mantle-derived rocks from many places have shown that hydrocarbons from the mantle region can be found widely around the globe. However, the content of such hydrocarbons is in low concentration. While there may be large deposits of abiotic hydrocarbons, globally significant amounts of abiotic hydrocarbons are deemed unlikely.
context_section_description: Arguments against chemical reactions, such as the serpentinite mechanism, being a source of hydrocarbon deposits within the crust include:
  the lack of available pore space within rocks as depth increases.
  this is contradicted by numerous studies which have documented the existence of hydrologic systems operating over a range of scales and at all depths in the continental crust.
  the lack of any hydrocarbon within the crystalline shield areas of the major cratons, especially around key deep-seated structures which are predicted to host oil by the abiogenic hypothesis. See Siljan Lake.
  lack of conclusive proof that carbon isotope fractionation observed in crustal methane sources is entirely of abiogenic origin (Lollar et al. 2006)
  drilling of the Siljan Ring failed to find commercial quantities of oil, thus providing a counter example to Kudryavtsev's Rule and failing to locate the predicted abiogenic oil.
  helium in the Siljan Gravberg-1 well was depleted in ³He and not consistent with a mantle origin
  The Gravberg-1 well only produced 84 barrels (13.4 m³) of oil, which later was shown to derive from organic additives, lubricants and mud used in the drilling process.
  Kudryavtsev's Rule has been explained for oil and gas (not coal)—gas deposits which are below oil deposits can be created from that oil or its source rocks.  Because natural gas is less dense than oil, as kerogen and hydrocarbons are generating gas the gas fills the top of the available space.  Oil is forced down, and can reach the spill point where oil leaks around the edge(s) of the formation and flows upward.  If the original formation becomes completely filled with gas then all the oil will have leaked above the original location.
  ubiquitous diamondoids in natural hydrocarbons such as oil, gas and condensates are composed of carbon from biological sources, unlike the carbon found in normal diamonds.
caption: Oil deposits are not directly associated with tectonic structures.
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