Kezorm

Investing Into the End of the Hydrocarbon Age

Response to Anaconda:

I have read alot about abiotic oil but will not digress. I want to make one point in defense of biotic formation for that sub-salt oil. What must have happened to deposit the salt? Yes, sea-water was getting concentrated in a closed basin where evaporation exceeded inflow. What might have been the condition of this closed sea just before the deposition of the salt? That's right, warm, stagnant water. Probably with so little circulation that it was anoxic at depth. So, any algae that grew at the surface; died, and got buried without decaying. Cover this stuff with salt, cook at 300F, and those hydrocarbons which may form, cannot easily escape because of the mile of salt forming above.

I don't know whether the oil is biotic or abiotic, but the geological context of the Brazilian discoveries makes biotic formation at least plausible.