Is Oil Sustainable?

For most of my life, I have lived with the "fact" that oil is a limited resource and that someday in the near future the last oil pump will drill the last drip of oil and the world will change immediately, dramatically.  But throughout my lifetime, threats have come and gone, and we continue to pump oil.  In the 70's, we were told that oil would not last for another 20 years.  But in 2011, we actually know that there is more oil available to pump and drill than there was in the 70's (if only Obama will allow it).

So what is going on?  Why is there more oil now?  Some scientists believe that the oil is regenerating.  For example, 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana is a mostly submerged mountain known as Eugene Island. A large amount of crude oil was discovered there in the late '60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330 was producing nearly 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil.  But by the late '80s, the platform's production had slipped to less than 4,000 barrels per day and was considered dead. Done.

Suddenly, in 1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves which had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the '70s, were recalculated at 400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological age of the new oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the '70s.

Analysis of seismic recordings revealed the presence of a "deep fault" at the base of the Eugene Island reservoir which was gushing up a river of oil from some deeper and previously unknown source, from the bottom up.   The same thing is happening in Alaska, the Middle East, and around the world.

"There are a number of observations across the oil-producing regions of the globe that support this theory, and the list of proponents begins with Mendelev (who created the periodic table of elements) and includes Dr. Thomas Gold (founding director of Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and Space Research) and Dr. J.F. Kenney of Gas Resources Corporations, Houston, Texas."

"Dr. Gold strongly believes that oil is a "renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attached by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs."
(WorldNet Daily)

So what if these theories are correct?  Doomsday predictions simply would not happen.  While reserves are most likely not inexhaustible, if pumped correctly and given time to regenerate, generation upon generations could experience low-cost fuel.  Dr. Gold has been quoted saying that current worldwide reserves of crude oil could be off by a factor of over 100.

Let me know what you think.