[Baalzamon]

Wow, that article is pretty damned convincing.

I never thought about the origins of oil in that way though, and I have to say that being involved in the biological/chemical sciences myself the idea of abiotic oil production makes much more logical sense than rotting dinosaur goo.

And as the article states, the Russians have been aware of this for almost 50 years, yet in the west the very idea of questioning the accepted theory is scoffed at.

It's very suspicious that our scientific community ignores any information about something as important as oil, dont you think?

As far as the impact on peak oil, this helps a bit. The problem is that even if oil continues to be available in some semi-renewable form for an indefinite period, it may still be difficult and expensive to extract, causing a similar effect as that of the peak oil theory.

Also, though a few oilfields may display this property of refilling themselves, I suspect that it is not a very common event. It probably also varies drastically with regards to the speed of replenishment, based on the regional geology of areas. Sure this oilfield in the gulf of mexico looks good, but that doesnt mean that other oilfields such as those in the middle east do the same. Thus as cool as this is, it will probably not be the total salvation from peak oil that this article claims it is.

BTW, though I agree with most of the idea of peak oil, I think a lot of people have hijacked the concept to turn it into the new doomsday panic.

If anything the oil companies will make shitloads of money by jacking up prices and the world economy will suffer. The idea that this will lead to the destruction of the human race is rediculous.