From Paul Noel...
"...The actual process for making oil is pretty simple and pretty well established. It works like this.
(1) Methane from either inorganic or organic process sources percolates upward through geologic formations until it reaches a Shale Layer.
(2) In the Shale Layer, there are a series of Trans-Uranium elements including Uranium and also a pretty fair amount of Iron etc. This mixture of metallic elements which is used in Oil drilling to detect deposits, catalytically recombines the methane and links it into various long chain hydrocarbons and a series of Benzene and similar compounds. Occasionally it will link to form Graphite. This process is not the process of ages. It is very fast and the outcome is equilibrium driven to a fairly exact outcome in a geologic instant. (Literally in days or less) Now anybody questioning the process better wise up to the fact that the process known as Catalytic Cracking of Oil was developed from knowing the Shale process. It was discovered to be working underground in the 1930's.
Sourcing for the Methane has been much of a question for a long time. The association of Coal deposits and similar was assumed for a long time to be the source of the methane for this process. This is the source of the Biologic theory of Oil Formation that is assumed by many to be fact.
Recent Research in Alabama Coal Field Gas deposits has given complete lie to this theory. It was assumed in the late 1970's when Alabama Coal Gas deposits were first drilled that the natural gas in them was from the coal itself interacting with the water in the area. The process was assumed to have sourced the carbon from the coal. Upon drilling the fields the carbon content of the fields was a measured quantity and it was assumed that the coal deposits would have their gas content depleted by 1990. Alabama Coal field deposits saw their productivity rise and rise and there has been no decline in the gas production through 2008.
By mid 1990's a serious question developed over the sourcing of Natural Gas. It was assumed that the developments would have run the fields out already. Their production was climbing. The production curves indicated a rise might include 100 times more production than previously estimated. The problem with this estimate was that neither depletion of the coal nor even evidence of any reduction of gas saturation became evident. If the coal was being converted into Natural Gas, it should have begun to have noticeable reductions in coal deposits in the area and none was observed. They had lowered mountains by up to 60 feet by the process and the coal veins were not thinned. The process removes a lot of water. This was the reduction in Mountain elevation. No effect was found on the coal deposits or the saturation of Natural Gas in the Coal. Water was actually depleted in the coal. So where was the natural gas coming from?
Research accumulated by the State of Alabama at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa found that all evidence pointed to the Shale as a cap preventing the escape of natural gas that was actually sourced far below the site. It was merely a cover. They also found a fair amount of oil developed in the shale boundary. The Coal Field Gas in the USA is not Biologic in Origin. The location of it in Coal fields is an accident of the fact that coal geology includes Shale above it. It is just that a coal field is a good catcher of the gas.
The cracking process for natural gas into other compounds is an equilibrium process. It is simply a kinetic energy measure. *combination of heat and pressure as one factor* The higher the pressure the more it tends to Natural Gas. The lower the pressure the more it tends to Oil up to about 10,000 feet down in the ground, then as the pressure lowers it again cracks towards Natural Gas. This is why US Oil, typically a shallow oil, is very heavy fraction crude oil. Middle eastern Oil a bit deeper typically is more light fraction oil. In the South Alabama Gas fields which are very deep (up to 7 miles) the fraction is nearly 99% Natural Gas.
These facts point aggressively to a theory that the Russians have of "Magma Oil". There is a very real possibility that Oil as we know it and Natural Gas have no biologic origin at all.
One curious factor that is not well known is the radiological data on the age of the oil. It would be assumed, if you believe in the "generally accepted" oil theory of biologic origins, that the radiologic age of the Oil would be about 220 million years. Actually the radiological age of nearly the entire inventory of coal and oil and Natural Gas is about 44,000 years. This is inconsistent with any of the accepted theories for either the age of the earth, evolutionary age or the supposed processes for their formation.
One process that was discovered in Alabama in Coal fields is quite interesting. The Carbon in Coal is known to be transient in the Coal. Carbon moving in from lower depths displaces the carbon at an elevation and the upper carbon moves upwards. The structure of the coal remains essentially the same during this process. This migration is not particularly slow. The entire inventory of a coal vein can be exchanged in a matter of a few thousand years. This brings up many questions on Geology and pretty much smashes all of the accepted theories. It is obvious that a great deal of migration of materials happens in the earth's crust and it is fairly rapid. It is obvious that the layers and content of the layers is always dynamically in flux. For example the Iridium layer known as the KT boundary is probably nothing but a chromatological layer. That is a collection filtration that happens as things move geologically. I know this will torque the brain of a lot of people. It says that the earth is a much more dynamic place with much more going on than we thought we knew."
Sepp Hasslberger: Renewable Coal, Oil and Gas - Hydrocarbons of Geological Origin