CompuServe Messages

Mike, Ran across this string while catching up on at 20megs of unread messages. Anyone say anything about continued oil accumulations in extant reservoirs? A prof in a Louisiana U. published a theory and supporting data from several old, abandoned fields that are now re-charged with hydrocardons. It seems that resersoir rock which is close enough to source rock can become re-pleted in 10 to 20 yrs. People asked, "Well, if it accumulates that quickly, where does all the excess go once a reservoir is full? It seems that shales are not as impermeable as once thought. There is a distinct halo of hydrocarbons around and above a reservoir. The halo forms a "chimney". Hydrocarbons leak off at an astounding rate. Ergo, much of the unrefined "oil spill" material in (for example) the world's oceans that can not be traced to a spill is indeed from natural sources. As for the organic source of hydrocarbons, I routinely estimate financial recoverables from source rock via remote sensing (using electric, nuclear, and acoustic signal sources) of in situ rock and rock-fluid's physical characteristics. I have been on site for recovery of source rock material and have been involved of recovery of formation material which is in the process of out-gassing and seeping oil (it is called "pop") as it is inspected at the surface. Advanced technologies are available for measuring pop and gasssing of rock. I have held the organic material in my hand and watched it pop and spit. The samples have been from 5,000feet to 22,500feet subsurface. The technologies are called mudlogging, wireline logging, and petrophysical core measurments. My company provides advanced neural network and fuzzy logic hybrid systems for evaluation of the economic potential of (among other items) organic source rock. Paleontologists (we call them bug counters) look at the organic material and classify and date the material. What I am saying is that there exists an entire scientific industry engaged in identifying and measuring the physical maturity of organic source rock for the purpose of estimating the worth of a reservoir. It *has* to make money. Wells currently cost $0.5million to $15+million to drill and complete. On average, only one in eight (1/8) wells are a success. Thus, if there was "nothing to" the idea that organic source rock yeilds oil, or if there was another and better (more correct) explanation for the origins of hydrocarbons, then I would venture to guess that there would be kazillions of bucks thrown at the problem of identifying and understanding that xxx source of hydrocarbons. If any of this was already covered, I am sorry for repeating. -JB