How oil is formed underground. Origin of oil

There is usually little doubt about the formation of oil and coal - these are the organic remains of ancient plants and animals transformed under the influence of subsoil pressure and a lack of oxygen. Therefore, coal and oil are rightly classified as non-renewable resources and the press regularly scares us with the very short period of time remaining until they are completely exhausted. There is undeniable evidence of this in coal - traces of ancient animal organisms and plants. But with oil, it turns out, everything is far from so simple. There are at least two more theories that have a fairly serious scientific basis.

The classical theory of oil formation is confirmed by the experience of German scientists G. Gefer and K. Engler, which they carried out in 1888. They distilled fish oil at a temperature of 400 C and a pressure of about 1 MPa. At the same time, they managed to obtain saturated hydrocarbons, paraffin, lubricating oils with a high content of alkenes, naphthenes and arenes. Later, Academician N.D. Zelinsky conducted a similar experiment, but the starting material was organic silt formed from algae. He managed to obtain gasoline, kerosene, heavy oils, as well as methane...

It would seem that everything fell into place with this process. Millions of years ago, deposited remains that fell to great depths (how?) under the influence of pressure and temperatures were transformed into oil-gas-coal. Soon (in 50 years) we will extract them all, and we will have to wait another few million years before the reserves are renewed. Not so. Facts indicate that the processes of oil and gas formation continue and are much more at a fast pace than is possible according to classical theory.

The facts of the ongoing formation of oil and gas are evidenced by the long service life of the fields, reaching a hundred years or more, and the total volumes of accumulated production, many times higher than originally planned. The level of production at fields in its later stages initially decreases to 10-20% of maximum level production and then stabilizes. For example, the Shebelinskoye field has been in operation for more than 50 years, and its resources have not depleted. The initial gas reserves of the field have been repeatedly adjusted upward. Currently they are 2 times higher than originally approved. In Tatarstan, a clear discrepancy between oil resources and oil production volumes has also been established. Now more than 3 billion tons of oil have already been extracted, while the estimate of their oil source material for the entire sedimentary strata is only 709 million tons. And these are not isolated cases.

Theory one. Carbide or biogenic.

In 1866, the French chemist M. Berthelot suggested that oil was formed (and is being formed) in the bowels of the Earth from mineral substances. To confirm his theory, he conducted several experiments, and he was able to artificially synthesize hydrocarbons from inorganic substances.

Ten years later, on October 15, 1876, at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society, D.I. Mendeleev outlined his hypothesis of the formation of oil. Great chemist believed that during the processes of mountain building, water flows deeper into the earth’s crust along cracks and faults that cut through the earth’s crust. Seeping into the depths, it eventually encounters iron carbides and, under the influence high temperatures and the pressure comes in chemical reaction. As a result of this reaction, iron oxides and hydrocarbons are formed. The resulting substances rise along fractures in the crust into its upper layers and saturate the porous rocks. As a result, gases and oil fields.

Mendeleev refers to experiments on the production of hydrogen and unsaturated hydrocarbons by the action of sulfuric acid on cast iron containing a sufficient amount of carbon.

At that time, the ideas of the “pure chemist” Mendeleev were not successful with geologists, who considered the experiments carried out in the laboratory to be different from the processes occurring in nature. However, the carbide or, as it is also called, the biogenic theory of the origin of oil received evidence from an unexpected source - from astrophysicists. The study of the spectra of celestial bodies showed that hydrocarbons are present in the atmosphere of Jupiter and some other planets, as well as in the gaseous envelopes of comets. Well, since compounds of carbon and hydrogen are common in space, it means that processes of synthesis of organic substances from inorganics take place in nature!

Theory two. Carbon cycle in nature.

A group of scientists from the Institute of Oil and Gas Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPOG RAS), under the leadership of Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Azary Barenbaum, developed another theory of the origin of oil and gas. According to their concept, hydrocarbon deposits can arise not over millions of years, but over decades. At the same time, the theory is called into question greenhouse effect, since the main thesis states that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can self-regulate, which means that uncontrolled accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not occur.

The theory of Russian scientists suggests that oil and gas formation is not so much a geological process as a climatic one. It is connected to the water and carbon cycles on Earth. Carbon supplied with rainwater and captured from the atmosphere in the form of bicarbonate under the conditions of the earth's crust is reduced to hydrocarbons, from which oil and gas accumulations are formed in geological trap structures. According to Russian scientists, up to 90% of oil and gas accumulations at depths from 1 to 10 kilometers appear thanks to the theory he described, and only 10% of the reserves are formed from organic residues, as assumed by the classical theory.

And another important conclusion of Russian geologists is that thanks to active participation in the formation of oil and gas in the climatic cycle, the replenishment of fossil hydrocarbon deposits occurs not over many hundreds of thousands and millions of years, but only over a few decades. And the second conclusion is that moderate extraction of oil and gas from deposits should not greatly affect the potential oil and gas content of the region. But this is true provided that hydrocarbons will be consumed within the same region as their production. That is thermal power plants, operating on hydrocarbons, compensate for the production of oil and gas by its formation.

Petroleum is a liquid, flammable mineral that is found in the Earth's sedimentary rocks. The composition of oil is a complex mixture of many hundreds of different hydrocarbons and compounds containing, in addition to carbon and hydrogen different quantities sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen and metals. By appearance oil is an oily liquid from dark to light color depending on the content of resinous substances in it. It is lighter than water, practically insoluble in it, its relative density is usually from 0.80 to 0.92. The viscosity of oil is much higher than that of water. The boiling point of various hydrocarbons and fractions that make up oil varies from 40-50 °C to high temperatures (up to 500-600 °C). Oil got its name from the Persian word “nafata”, which means “seeping, flowing out”. The appearance of oil on Earth is still a topic of ongoing scientific debate (mainly two mutually exclusive hypotheses - its organic and inorganic origin).

According to the hypothesis of the inorganic origin of oil (abiogenic hypothesis), hydrocarbons were formed as a result of the transformation of organic compounds. Back in 1805, the German scientist A. Humboldt argued that oil comes from primitive rocks, under which the energy of all volcanic phenomena rests. In 1876, the French chemist M. Berthelot, having artificially synthesized hydrocarbons from inorganic substances, suggested that oil was formed in the bowels of the Earth from mineral compounds.

In 1876, the Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev outlined his “carbide” hypothesis of oil formation, according to which water, seeping into the bowels of the Earth and interacting with metal carbides, in particular iron, under the influence of high temperatures and pressure forms hydrocarbons and corresponding metal oxides . The abiogenic theory was confirmed by experiments on the production of hydrogen and unsaturated hydrocarbons by the action of sulfuric acid (H2S04) on cast iron containing significant amounts of carbon. In 1878, French scientists, processing hydrochloric acid(HC1) mirror cast iron and iron water vapor at white heat produced hydrogen and hydrocarbons that even smelled like oil.

A significant contribution to the development of the hypothesis about the inorganic origin of oil was made by the famous Leningrad petroleum geologist N. A. Kudryavtsev. In the 1950s, having summarized the vast geological material about the oil and gas fields of the world, he created his magmatic hypothesis of the origin of oil, according to which, in the Earth’s mantle at high temperatures and pressures, hydrocarbon radicals are first formed from carbon and hydrogen, which, rising into the layers of the earth cortex (in the area more low temperatures and pressures), interact with each other and with hydrogen, turning into oil. Moving both vertically and horizontally in the rock along cracks, the resulting oil accumulates in traps not only in upper layers Earth, but also in depth. These ideas of N.A. Kudryavtsev are confirmed by the increasing depth (more than 10 km) of drilling oil wells.

But the “carbide” hypothesis does not explain the appearance of all hydrocarbons of various structures that are present in oil. Along with the volcanic hypothesis of the origin of oil, Russian geologist V.D. Sokolov in 1889 put forward a cosmic theory, according to which a gas clot gradually passed into the liquid phase, and the hydrocarbons it contained (compounds of carbon with hydrogen) dissolved in liquid magma, which transformed as cooling into the solid earth's crust, through cracks in which hydrocarbons rose to its upper layers, forming accumulations of oil and gas.

Already in our time, having combined the volcanic and cosmic hypotheses into a single whole, Novosibirsk researcher V. A. Salnikov suggested that as a result of the collision of the satellite with the Earth, volcanic and mountain-building activity intensified. Billions of tons of volcanic ash and mud flows dumped in deep bowels Hydrocarbons brought from space to the Earth, where under the influence of high temperatures and pressures they turned into oil and gas.

The essence of the organic hypothesis of the origin of oil is that oil and gas originated from organic matter that was originally dispersed in sedimentary rocks. It is assumed that such organic matter was the dead remains of microflora and microfauna (plankton, etc.), which developed in sea ​​water, to which were mixed the remains of the animal and flora. The main processes of transformation of organic matter buried in sedimentary rocks occurred after immersion to significant depths, where under the influence of high temperatures and pressures, as well as due to the catalytic action of rocks organic matter converted into petroleum hydrocarbons. This took hundreds (about 570) million years, which, however, is only about 10% of the history of the Earth. Back in 1888, German scientists G. Gefer and K. Engler obtained saturated hydrocarbons, paraffin and lubricating oils by distilling fish oil at a temperature of 400 °C and a pressure of about 1 MPa.

In 1919, the Russian scientist academician N.D. Zelinsky while processing organic sludge plant origin(sapropel from Lake Balkhash) received gasoline, kerosene, heavy oils, and methane.

Academician I.M. Gubkin in his book “The Study of Oil” (1932) also considered sapropel - bituminous sludge of plant-animal origin - as a starting material for the formation of oil. Layers enriched with organic residues are overlain by younger sediments, which protect the sludge from oxidation by atmospheric oxygen and its subsequent transformation under the influence of anaerobic bacteria. In the reservoir, as tectonic movements move deeper, temperature and pressure increase, which leads to the transformation of organic matter into oil. I. M. Gubkin’s views on the formation of oil underlie modern hypothesis its biogenic origin, according to which the process of formation of oil fields includes as the main stages of sedimentation and transformation of organic residues into oil.

Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. A. Vorobyov put forward the assumption that, in addition to temperature and pressure, electricity also participates in natural processes. Thus, methane, released from organic compounds under the influence of an electric discharge that occurs when rocks come into contact during tectonic processes, is converted into acetylene, ethylene and other hydrocarbons that make up oil.

The founder of modern petroleum geochemistry, Academician V.I. Vernadsky at the beginning of the 20th century. also adhered to the biogenic hypothesis of the origin of oil: “Organisms are undoubtedly the original substance of oils.” According to the hypothesis expressed by V.I. Vernadsky, the structure of oil, gas, coal and other rocks involves carbon and its compounds, which are part of the global geochemical cycle system

V earth's crust(Fig. 1.1). The main of these compounds is carbon dioxide (CO2), the content of which in the atmosphere is estimated at 4 10th tons. Moreover, more than 8 108 tons of CO2 are absorbed from the atmosphere annually as a result of photosynthesis and weathering. That is, in the absence of a cycle, carbon could completely disappear from the atmosphere over thousands of years and be “buried” in rocks, where CO2 reserves are approximately 500 times greater than in the atmosphere.

Methane (CH4) is also a carrier of carbon, and its content in the atmosphere is 5,109 tons. However, part of the CH4 from the atmosphere enters the stratosphere and further into outer space. In addition, methane is also consumed as a result of photochemical transformations. If we take into account that the lifetime of a CH4 molecule in the atmosphere is about 5 years, then in order to replenish its reserves, about 109 tons of methane must enter the atmosphere annually from underground reserves in the form of methane evaporation or “gas breathing of the Earth.”

Currently, the sources of carbon intake are considered to be the Earth’s mantle during volcanic eruptions and degassing of the interior due to the “gas breathing” of the planet. In this case, the replenishment of carbon reserves occurs as a result of sediments of oceanic rock being drawn into the mantle when the plates move over each other. To a much lesser extent (10"10 from total number annually "stored") carbon is supplied along with meteorite matter from outer space.

MSU professor B. A. Sokolov figuratively writes about the organic origin of oil and gas: “Oil is the result of physical and chemical reactions in the collision of two opposing moving flows: a descending organomineral wave of sedimentary layers containing organic matter and undergoing catagenetic transformations, on the one hand, and rising fluid, carrying out heat and mass transfer from the bowels of the Earth to its surface - on the other.”

Most Belarusian scientists (academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Russian Academy Sciences R. G. Garetsky, corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus R. E. Aizberg and A. V. Kudelsky) connect the genesis of oil and natural gas with the organic (sedimentary-migration) theory. Their position is due to the fact that almost all known accumulations of oil and hydrocarbon gases are confined to sedimentary strata and areas of development of the so-called oil and gas source (oil and gas generating) complexes. There is a very strong similarity between most organic compounds found in sedimentary rocks and the hydrocarbons that make up the bulk of oil, and it is shown that organic matter in oil is of biogenic origin. In accordance with the sedimentary migration theory, the oil and gas content of the subsoil is a historical phenomenon. It depends on the quantity and quality of organic matter of generation rocks, the intensity of their immersion to great depths (2-10 km or more) in an increasingly high-temperature environment (from 60-80 to 150-200 °C).

In this regard, all prospecting and exploration work to discover new oil and gas fields in Belarus is based on the concept of their organic origin.

At the same time, according to academician R. G. Garetsky, identified cases of oil shows in crystalline or igneous rocks (if they are not associated with flow from sedimentary strata) may be evidence of the possibility of the genesis of oil and naphthides in inorganic (abiogenic) ways. But such naftide shows are disproportionately rare than oil shows in sedimentary complexes.

Belarusian scientist, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Yu. M. Pleskachevsky in the late 1980s proposed a radiation-chemical hypothesis of the genesis of oil, which is based on known interaction phenomena ionizing radiation with substance. According to this hypothesis, oil is formed both from organic matter of the sedimentary strata and from carbonaceous gases of deep and ultra-deep origin. Under the influence of natural radiation of earth rocks, gases of mantle (abiogenic) origin, such as methane and low molecular weight hydrocarbons, which are also present in the products of destruction of organic substances “buried” in sediments, i.e., of biogenic origin, polymerize and then turn into oil. Moreover, the depth of these transformations is largely determined by the absorbed dose of radiation, which determines the formation of oil of varying composition and viscosity.

The radiation-chemical hypothesis of oil formation is supported by the presence of natural radioactive substances: uranium, thorium, etc., as well as vanadium compounds (the concentration of which in heavy

Oil is often called “black gold”, since it brings good profits to those people who extract it. Many people wonder how oil was formed and what its composition is. Let's try to figure this out next.

Main Components

Having taken note this information, Mendeleev created his own theory about how oil is formed in nature. It states that surface water that penetrates deeper through cracks reacts with metals and their carbides. As a result, hydrocarbons are formed. They rise gradually along the same cracks in the earth's crust. Over time, an oil field forms in these places. This process lasts no more than 10 years.

This theory about how oil was formed on earth gives scientists the right to claim that reserves of this substance will last for many centuries. That is, deposits of this mineral can be restored if people stop production for a while. It is absolutely impossible to do this in conditions of constant population growth. One hope remains for new deposits. To date, work has been carried out to identify latest evidence the truth of the abiogenic theory. A well-known Moscow scientist showed that if any hydrocarbon that has a polynaphthenic component is heated to 400 degrees, pure oil will be released. This is a reliable fact.

Artificial oil

This product can be obtained in laboratory conditions. They learned to do this in the last century. Why do people extract oil deep underground, and not obtain it through synthesis? The point is that it will have a huge market value. It is not profitable to produce it at all.

The fact that this product can be obtained in laboratory conditions confirms the above abiogenic theory. Her in lately Many people support.

What is natural gas made from?

Let us consider for comparison the origin of this mineral. Dead living organisms, having sank to the bottom of the sea, were in an environment where they did not disintegrate either as a result of oxidation (there is practically no air or oxygen there) or under the influence of microbes. As a result, silty sediments formed from them. Thanks to geological movements, they sank to great depths, penetrating into the bowels of the earth. For millions of years, these sediments were exposed to high temperatures and pressures. As a result of this, a certain process took place in these deposits. That is, the carbon contained in the sediments turned into compounds called hydrocarbons. This process is significant in the formation of this substance.

High molecular weight hydrocarbons are liquid substances. From them oil was created. But low molecular weight hydrocarbons are gaseous substances. There are a considerable number of them found in nature. Just one of them natural gas and it works. This alone requires more high pressure and temperature. Therefore, where oil is produced, natural gas is always present.

Over time, many deposits of these minerals have gone to significant depths. Over millions of years they were covered by sedimentary rocks.

Determining the price of oil

Let's consider this terminology. The price of oil is the availability cash equivalent the relationship between supply and demand. There is a certain relationship here. That is, if supply falls, then the price rises until it matches demand.

The price of oil also depends on the quotes of futures or contracts for a given product of one type or another. This is a significant factor. Thanks to prompt oil prices, it is sometimes profitable to trade futures on stock indices. Price of this product indicated in international format. Namely in US dollars per barrel. So, a price of 45.50 on UKOIL means that the specified Brent product costs $45.50.

The price of oil is very important indicator for the Russian stock market. Its significance has a great influence on the development of the country. Basically, the dynamics of this indicator are determined by the economic situation in the United States. This is important to know when deciding how the price of oil is determined. To effectively forecast stock market dynamics, you need an overview of the value of a given mineral over a certain time (per week), and not just what the price is today.

Bottom line

All of the above contains a lot useful information. After reading this text, everyone will be able to understand the solution to the question of how oil and gas are formed in nature.

Oil is the fuel basis of modern civilization. Products formed by processing are used for heating, propulsion vehicles, road paving, polymer production, and for a variety of other processes, each of which is an integral part way of life humanity.

The problem of the exhaustibility of oil reserves has led to numerous scientific discussions about its origin and the substances involved in its formation. The need to explain the process of oil genesis has split the scientific community into two irreconcilable camps:

• supporters of the biogenic theory;
• adherents of the abiogenic path of education.

The abiogenic theory is considered more optimistic for humanity. Its supporters argue that the most common hydrocarbon on our planet is formed through the geological synthesis of its two inorganic components: hydrogen and carbon. Their connection is initiated by high pressure in underground strata, and occurs in periods measured in tens of thousands of years.

But even if this scenario is ever proven, it doesn't make fate human race simpler: the moment of the invention that formed the basis of the wheel and the creation of the first portable computer are separated by less than 5 thousand years. And for the formation of significant oil reservoirs, it takes no less than several tens, or even hundreds of thousands of years.

One of the eminent scientists who shared the theory is Mikhail Lomonosov. Along with our contemporaries, he believed that known oil reserves lying relatively close to the surface were only a microscopic part of planetary reserves.

Modern followers believe that oil formed in nature is not only a renewable resource, but also an almost inexhaustible resource for any volume of consumption.

One of the proofs of the possibility of oil synthesis in nature is the presence of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere of gas giant planets (in particular, Jupiter). This circumstance confirms the possibility of the formation of the simplest organic substances from natural inorganics.

Abiogenic theory: how is oil formed?

Adherents explain the origin of “black gold” as the result of processes of processing biomass - the remains of ancient plants and animals that existed on the planet millions of years ago. There is much more evidence than the opposite.

One of the first proofs was an experiment conducted by German naturalists back in late XIX century. Engler and Gefer took lipids of animal origin (oil isolated from cod liver) as the material basis for the experiment, and by exposing it to high temperatures and pressure many times higher than atmospheric pressure, they isolated light organic fractions from it.

There are many more experiments and laboratory studies that support this theory of oil formation in nature. Also, geological surveys and forecasting the occurrence of oil reservoirs are based exclusively on the provisions of this theory.

Unexplained Events

There are a number of deposits, the very fact of their existence refutes the main provisions of the abiogenic theory of the origin of oil in nature. These include:

• Tersko-Sunzhenskoe;
• Romashkinskoe;
• West Siberian oil and gas province.

IN different times Unexplained “replenishment” of oil was observed in these areas. The essence of the amazing events was that the available methods for analyzing the formations stated that they were exhausted, the wells showed an almost complete stop in oil production, however, after a few years, each one again showed the presence of oil available for production.

Geologists predicted production in the Romashkinskoye deposit would be a little more than 700 million tons of black gold, but in just one Soviet period oil production was in a simple way At least 3 billion tons were recovered.

The Tersko-Sunzhenskoye field was depleted by the beginning of World War II, when there had been no “gushing” oil production there for more than 10 years. However, after the end of the war, the explored wells allegedly received new reserves: production not only resumed, but began to exceed pre-war volumes by orders of magnitude.

A similar situation was observed in many fields of the USSR. Proponents of the inorganic formation of oil in nature easily explained these cases, pointing out that in these areas the hydrocarbons are of inorganic origin. Moreover, their formation is significantly catalyzed by the presence of heavy graphites in the depths of the earth and the flow of sedimentary waters, which, under the influence of colossal pressure, gives rise to the accelerated formation of oil.

According to scientists, a significant part of the territory West Siberian Plain was covered with waters ancient sea. Natural origin oil in this area is subject to criticism and obstruction, but the mineral formation of methane, not caused by the processes of decay of organic matter, finds many supporters. Through a process called hydration, iron salts interacted with sea ​​water, generating the release of methane. It accumulated in natural reservoirs, remaining there even after the sea dried up and reaching the present day in its original form, naturally formed in nature.

Conclusions and forecasts

Whichever path of education natural oil did not receive irrefutable evidence, this will help human civilization rather little. Human memory, archival recording of observations and scientific research hardly covers periods of hundreds or thousands of years, not to mention millions.

It is at least unreasonable to talk about the possible onset of a fuel crisis: humanity is rapidly developing alternative energy sources, replacing outdated technologies with new ones, and modernizing the processes of exploration and production of already known resources. None of the modern forecasts has a more stable basis than observation of nature and comparison of facts, analysis of observations and historical archives. To cover in one study all kinds of cases that go beyond the ideas of one of the theories, to compare them and bring them to a common denominator is an idea that is more ambitious than realistically achievable. Therefore, the question is: “How is oil formed in nature?” may remain open for a long time.

Until then, oil, the key fuel on our planet, will continue to remain the subject of scientific controversy and the source of numerous mysteries.

"Oil is the most valuable chemical raw material,
She must be protected. Can you heat boilers?
and banknotes."
D.I.Mendeleev

Despite the fact that by the end of the twentieth century, nuclear energy began to grow rapidly, oil still occupies the most important place in the energy balance of all countries. And how could it be otherwise? After all, you can’t put nuclear power plant for cars and planes! Of course, there are nuclear ships, but they are few. What about everything else? And man does not live by energy alone. He walks on asphalt roads, and this is oil. And all these gasolines, kerosenes, fuel oils, oils, rubbers, polyethylenes, asbestos products and even mineral fertilizers! It would be bad for us if there were no oil on the globe. But there is a lot of oil on Earth; it began to be extracted back in the 6th millennium BC, and now annual production amounts to hundreds of millions of tons.

Oil brings big profits. Entire countries prosper by selling their oil and causing the envy of their neighbors. Other countries pump oil into natural and artificial caves, creating strategic reserves just in case. Oil kings and monopolies, pipelines and oil refineries, redistribution of oil property, oil wars, treaties and speculation, etc., etc. What has happened in the history of mankind because of oil! Life would be boring for people if she were not in the world.

But oil exists, its reserves amount to hundreds of billions of tons, and it is distributed everywhere, on land and at sea, and at great depths, measured in kilometers: what lay on the surface has long been used, and now oil is extracted from depths of 2-4 or more kilometers. But there is even more of it even deeper; it’s just not profitable to extract it from there yet.

But here’s what’s strange: although there is a lot of oil and it is widely used, no one still knows where oil came from on Earth in the first place. There are many guesses and hypotheses on this matter, some belong to the pre-scientific period, which lasted until the Middle Ages, and others to the scientific period, called by learned people the period of scientific guesses.

In 1546, Agricola wrote that oil and coal are of inorganic origin. Lomonosov in 1763 suggested that oil came from the same organic matter as coal. In the third period, the period of development of the oil industry, a number of assumptions were made about both the organic and inorganic origin of oil. Without being able to even simply list them, we will limit ourselves to just a few.

1866 French chemist M. Berthelot: oil is formed by the action of carbon dioxide on alkali metals.

1871 French chemist G. Biasson: oil was formed due to the interaction of water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide with hot iron.

1877 D.I. Mendeleev: oil was formed as a result of the penetration of water deep into the Earth and its interaction with carbides.

1889 V.D. Soloviev: hydrocarbons were contained in the gas shell of the Earth even when it was a star, and then they were absorbed by molten magma and formed oil.

And then there was a series of hypotheses of inorganic origin of oil, but they were not supported by the International Petroleum Congresses, and of organic origin, which were supported.

It is believed that the main source of oil is plankton. Rocks formed from sediments containing this type of organic matter are potentially petroleum source rocks. After prolonged heating, they form oil. Many variations on this theme have been created, however, one difficulty is not explained in any way, how such a mass of plankton (or mammoths, it doesn’t matter) could get to such depths throughout to the globe, and even settle in sandstones, even if they are porous. And it is still unclear why oil fields always contain not only oil, but also sulfur in the form of hydrogen sulfide or tars. And why is there almost the entire set of associated waters that accompany oil production? chemical elements, unlikely to be contained in plankton.

But those who scientifically understand the origin of oil try not to focus on such trifles.

However, I would like to draw attention to one more possibility, which most likely will not be recognized by the International Petroleum Congresses. The fact is that the sandstones that contain oil are mainly silicon oxide - SiO. And if from one silicon core having atomic weight 28, subtract one alpha particle with atomic weight 4 and add it to another silicon atom, you get a sulfur atom with atomic weight 32. And the magnesium isotope remaining from the first atom with atomic weight 24 will be partially preserved as magnesium, which is also contained in associated waters , and will partially fall apart and give two carbon molecules with an atomic weight of 12, thus creating some basis for the formation of both oil and coal. But if this is so, then the question arises about the mechanism that could accomplish all this.

From the point of view of etherodynamics, such a mechanism exists. To the Earth, like any other celestial body ethereal streams flow from space, their entry speed is equal to the second cosmic speed, which for the Earth is 11.18 km/s. These flows penetrate into the Earth to any depth, passing through rocks along the way and becoming turbulent. The result of turbulization of ethereal flows are vortices, which are compressed by the external pressure of the ether, and the speed of the flows in them increases many times, as well as the velocity gradients, which means large pressure gradients appear, tearing apart molecules, atoms and nuclei and rearranging the substance. Moreover, over many years, any hydrocarbons and any elements in general could be created from ordinary inorganic rocks, and at any depth.

Similar processes may well occur in the bowels of any planets, which means that both oil and coal, and other minerals and elements may exist on all planets solar system and not only her. This, however, does not mean that there was life on these planets. Just like the imprints of dragonflies or leaves in coal do not at all indicate that coal was formed from these dragonflies or leaves. You never know where anyone could have flown over the past millions of years!

From the above it follows that the oil crisis may not be associated with a shortage of oil on Earth, but with the high cost of its extraction from the deep layers. So D.I. Mendeleev is right not only in the sense that oil must be protected because it is a valuable raw material, this is true even if there is a lot of it. He is also right because, starting at some point, the cost of its production will increase so much that it will be impossible to heat the boilers with banknotes, i.e. paper money will be cheaper.