1. Taken from the peer-reviewed
Database.
Quotes are not cited with their references. References
available on request.
Argument supported is that fossil fuel reserves are
ecologically important and should be preserved rather than
harvested.
2. “Subsurface hydrocarbon and oil shale deposits, once thought
sterile, are being re-evaluated as habitats for ancient and
contemporary microbial activity”
“Multiple groups of microorganisms with diverse physiological and metabolic
abilities and phylogenetic affiliations have routinely been recovered from oil
reservoirs. The ability of microorganisms to sustain an underground deep
biosphere, which is independent of above ground primary productivity
(Chapelle et al., 2002; Krumholz et al., 1997; Lin et al., 2007), coupled to the
proved abilities of anaerobic microorganisms to utilize multiple oil
components (Heider et al., 1998) attest to the presence of indigenous
microbial communities in oil reservoirs, and currently, it is a well-established
scientific fact that oil reservoirs harbor and sustain diverse bacterial and
archaeal communities.”
3. “The underlying assumption of all near-surface geochemical exploration
techniques is that hydrocarbons are generated and/or trapped at depth and
leak in varying but detectable quantities to the surface.”
4. “Bacteria and other microbes play a profound role in the
oxidation of migrating hydrocarbons, and their activities
are directly or indirectly responsible for many of the surface
manifestations of hydrocarbon seepage.”
5. “Microbial activity generates gas and mineral precipitates, and
dissolves minerals; these processes, in turn, affect rock
permeability, fluid flow, and rock strength.”
6. “Coal-bed gas of the Tertiary Fort Union and Wasatch Formations in the
Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, U.S. was interpreted as
microbial in origin by previous studies based on limited data on the gas and
water composition and isotopes associated with the coal beds.”
“Historically, coal-mine methane has caused mine outbursts or explosions in
many countries, especially China, resulting in thousands of lost lives
(Flores, 1998). Methane emanating from underground and from surface coal
mines is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.”
7. ”More than 8,804,000,000 barrels of crude were
pumped from the various pools of the Mid-Continent
Region from 1900 to 1935.”
• This quote is not from the peer-reviewed
Database, but a museum website.
8. “Methane seeps in the ocean are much more important to life in
the ocean than we previously have suspected”.
“Most of the significant effects of methane macro-seeps we have described
and discussed herein, are, on a large scale, regarded as being positive, or
beneficial to the marine and lacustrine environment. This is because the
allochtonous input from the substratum may be regarded as causing a general
fertilization effect. Furthermore, this fact has also been recognised by the
paleontologists, some of which have seeked to find seep-related carbonates
in ancient sedimentary rock, as guides for the finding of spectacular animal
remains, from large animals that utilized the seep-related organisms
(Hammer et al., 2011). “
9. Interesting…
“””Allowing new oil exploration and drilling technologies to be deployed off
the California coast could focus first on reducing natural seepage by relieving
pressures that pushes oil and gas out into Santa Barbara and other California
waters.
As these operations prove themselves not only to generate revenue but to
reduce natural oil seepage, California residents will feel more confident
allowing additional oil and gas production.”””
---not from peer reviewed article
