OIL DISCOVERED OFF COAST OF BRAZIL COULD NOT BE "FOSSIL FUEL"

As we've repeatedly shown here at AB (here, here, and here, for instance), oil is not necessarily an abiotic fossil fuel. In fact, in at least some cases, it has been proven that microbes excrete petroleum.

Could it be the very idea of "peak oil" is absolute b.s.?

Yes, that is very likely.

And, here is more evidence:

A key argument of "Peak-Oil" and "Fossil-Fuel" theorists is no new giant oilfield discoveries have been made in recent years. Oil "experts" such as Matt Simmons and Ken Deffeyes are locked into the belief that oil is a fossil fuel, and pretty soon we are bound to have found and drilled all the oil that ever was. What about Brazil?

The experience of Brazil's offshore drilling is proving that giant new oil fields are out there, waiting to be discovered, just off shore along the continental shelf. Petrobras, Brazil's largest oil company is moving Brazil from being nearly 100 percent dependent on foreign oil imports only some 50 years ago, toward becoming a net oil exporter in the next few years. How? Brazil has realized spectacular results by developing the technology to drill ultra-deepoffshore wells in Brazil's Barracuda and Caratingua oil fields, in the Campos Basin some 50 miles into the Atlantic Ocean east of Rio de Janeiro.

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Today, Petrobras is one of the world's leaders in developing offshore technology capable of drilling the ocean floor under some two miles of water. Petrobras enjoys considerable international prestige with its ultra-deepwater technology. The company has expanded its offshore presence in the Gulf of Mexico and off the West Coast of Africa. Petrobras is contemplating developing new offshore projects in the Caribbean, in the waters offshore Cuba.

The geological description of the Campos Basin suggests that the rock formations in which oil is being found are in Upper Oligocene to Lower Micocene deposits – in other words, deposits from the Cenozoic Era, dating back only some 24,000 years. Dinosaurs dominated in the prior Mesozoic Era which stretches back 250 million years ago and end some 65 million years ago.The oil -rich deposits in the Campos Field stretch back at most some 20 thousands of years, not millions. This should rule out that any dead dinosaurs or decaying ancient forests formedthe oil found off Brazil's shore. Dinosaurs supposed died out in the Crataceous Period at the end of the Mesozoic Era, just before the Cenozoic Era began.

Moreover, the oil-rich deposits are typically described as "turbidite," a sedimentary deposit that typically consists of material that has moved down a steep slope at the edge of thecontinental shelf. The oil-rich sediments are mostly sand and mud. The technical descriptions of the oil-rich rock in the Campos Basin strongly suggest that the deposits flowed from the continent and settled on the ocean floor.

The biotic content of the rock is found to contain "benthic foraminifera," little shell creatures that like to live on the ocean bottom. The rock itself is described as having been formed in "bathyal" conditions, a term typically reserved to describe the ocean floor from half a mile to about two miles down. The geological descriptions suggest no findings of animal fossils or ancient flora debris.

While the geology suggests the Campos Basin oil-rich deposits formed when the sea level was lower than today, the deposits suggest that the area was most probably still underwater when the sand and mud deposits flowed into the area.

With the geological description of the rock, "Fossil-Fuel" theorists are going to have a hard time positing that ancient dinosaurs and decaying prehistoric flora were the cause of the oil. The geological description sounds like the area was already well underwater when mud and sand run-off from the shore deposited sediment. The abiotic theory of oil seems more consistent with the geology, arguing that this type of deposit was sufficiently porous for upward-seeping hydrocarbons naturally formed in the Earth's mantle to pool in reservoirs.

Oh, and by the way, while Brazil is leading the way in Energy Exploration, Barack Obama has put a moratorium on off-shore drilling. And, the result is,

IDLED OIL RIGS ARE MOVING TO BRAZIL