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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (211600)	2/25/2025 10:19:32 AM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 217573

Online content creator arrested after videos surface of her urinating on grocery store products dating back 4 years aol.com

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (211600)

3/2/2025 7:05:54 AM

From: TobagoJack

Respond to of 217573

maybe something, perhaps nothing, and ... well ... what the heck ... might lead to wtf

globaltimes.cn

China completes drilling of Asia's deepest vertical well in major breakthrough: report

Deep Thoughts

Speculations about China’s cutting-edge drilling ambitions.

“A mouse does not rely on just one hole.” – Plautus

In June of 1986, astrophysicist Thomas Gold spearheaded an initiative to begin drilling for oil in the Siljan Ring near Rättvik, Sweden, home to a large meteorite strike some 360 million years earlier and one of the most unlikely places on the planet to find oil. Gold was a proponent of the controversial theory that fossil fuels are formed not through biogenic decomposition (i.e., not from fossils at all) but through inorganic processes occurring deep within the Earth. He believed this would be the ideal test site to prove his hypothesis.

Of all the gin joints… | NASA

Several years and $40 million later, some 80 barrels of hydrocarbon sludge were indeed brought to the surface, enough for Gold to claim the experiment a validating success. The consensus of the scientific community begged to differ, citing evidence that the material was derived from the diesel-based drilling fluid used in the operation. Given the costs involved and the nature of the commercial flop, enthusiasm for Gold’s adventures soon petered out.

The biogenic theory of oil falls into the category of seemingly settled science that is largely off-limits to scrutiny. Challenges to it, like Gold’s, often provoke strong reactions. To be clear, the evidence supporting this theory is practically overwhelming. The ubiquitous presence of certain biomarkers in all known oil basins, the distribution of carbon isotopes within such mixtures, and the successful laboratory replication of natural processes hypothesized to produce oil all strongly support the consensus view. The theory is exceptionally useful in the field, both for discovering and fully exploiting hydrocarbon basins, and no meaningful volume of provably abiogenic hydrocarbons has ever been found on Earth.

Despite the strength of this evidence, the belief that abiogenic hydrocarbons exist in great quantities far beneath the Earth's surface remains stubbornly difficult to extinguish. Vast amounts of methane and ethane have been found elsewhere in our solar system—such as those on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan—and the discovery of a similar abiotic reservoir on our planet would greatly alter the global economy. The continued search for them is a textbook example of low-probability, high-impact prize theory in action.

Hydrocarbon lakes on Titan | NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS

Perhaps no country would benefit more than China in the unlikely event that Gold was proven correct. As the world’s largest importer of crude oil, China has long placed energy security at the forefront of concerns. To compensate for its limited conventional oil and gas reserves, the country has relied heavily on coal and is in the midst of a massive nuclear power expansion. It has also invested extensively in developing domestic shale resources, albeit with mixed results. Against this backdrop, the following news dispatch is intriguing, to say the least:

“China has launched an ambitious initiative to develop world-leading drilling technologies and equipment, aiming to secure its energy future and explore the Earth’s deep interior. As part of a national megaproject, the initiative will see the development of China’s first 15,000-metre (49,200-foot) ultra-deep intelligent drilling rig.”

At 15,000 meters, China’s new borehole would smash records for depth, and the technologies required to achieve such a breakthrough could introduce a major advancement in energy exploration and development. Drilling to this depth raises questions about China's intentions, as known oil basins this far below the surface are exceedingly rare (we’re aware of none). Might the country secretly be searching for abiotic oil in the hopes of permanently severing its dependence on outside sources of hydrocarbons? It’s a speculative conjecture, but one worth digging into.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made the domestic development of critical technologies a central pillar of his agenda to shield China from Western scientific dominance. In a widely noted speech delivered in May of 2021, Xi emphasized Earth science as a critical national security priority. During his remarks, Xi surprised many by identifying drilling technology among his top initiatives:

“China will need to enhance research into deep Earth sciences to fulfill some of the country's biggest strategic needs, from finding and utilizing underground resources to predicting and mitigating natural disasters, experts said. In a speech addressing China's top scientists and engineers in late May, President Xi Jinping urged the Chinese scientific community to break new ground in four strategic frontiers: deep space, deep sea, deep Earth and ‘deep blue’…

Compared with the other three frontiers, deep Earth exploration is a relatively obscure field, given the enormous resources, manpower and technological ingenuity needed to penetrate the Earth's crust, experts said. But since the mid-20th century, more countries are now aware of the strategic importance of this field.”

Building on this objective, China announced a new onshore drilling project in 2023 aimed at reaching 11,100 meters, just shy of the global record set by Russia. Located over the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Region—one of the largest and most technologically complex oil and gas fields in the country—the project promised to penetrate over ten layers of continental strata.

Drill, baby, drill | Xinhua

Here’s where things get interesting. According to China’s own top petroleum scientists, 11,100 meters is well below the expected hydrocarbon presence levels in the Basin, which itself is the deepest major onshore oil and gas field in the country. In a comprehensive paper published in 2019 titled “ The dead line for oil and gas and implication for fossil resource prediction,” researchers ranked the six major hydrocarbon basins in China based on depth and geothermal gradients, comparing them to other major global resources. The goal was to determine the levels below which no hydrocarbons should be found:

“The active source rock depth limit (ASDL) is de?ned as the maximum burial depth of active source rocks beyond which the source rocks no longer generate or expel hydrocarbons and become inactive. In addition to the burial depth, the ASDL can also be characterized by other physical parameters of source rocks, such as the thermal maturity.”

ASDL of China’s major oil and gas basins | Earth System Science Data

The report indicates that 15,000 meters is far deeper than the ASDL of any basin characterized. Further, basins with strong heat flows tend to generate hydrocarbons at shallower depths, and liquid hydrocarbons are typically encountered before gaseous ones. This raises two important questions: Why is China drilling so deep? And what if substantial hydrocarbon resources are found at depths where biogenic theory predicts none should exist?

A straightforward answer to the first question is that China is simply conducting a basic science experiment in the hopes of validating the new technologies needed to accomplish the task. After all, exploring material science challenges is intrinsically valuable, and the insights gained from this research would surely find wide application across numerous industries. These efforts could also advance geothermal energy, a rapidly growing field attracting significant global investment. It is also possible the country is aiming to set new records for national prestige, an effort akin to building the world’s tallest skyscraper.

And if hydrocarbons are found below the ASDL? At a minimum, the discovery would challenge the completeness of the biogenic theory of oil and strengthen the position that Gold’s views warrant renewed consideration. The distribution of carbon isotopes in material sourced at such depths would be the most critical factor to analyze. If they are inconsistent with those derived from decomposed organic matter, it would be a monumental discovery. How China would behave in response would itself be fascinating. Would they even announce it?

Despite the controversy sparked during their careers, mavericks like Thomas Gold provide an invaluable service to science. Paradigm-shifting hypotheses rarely originate from within established frameworks of study. To make bold leaps in understanding, a willingness to risk looking foolish is often a prerequisite. Gold faced considerable skepticism as he shopped his ideas, especially after his controversial findings in Sweden. Nearly 20 years after his passing, with his work in this area largely dismissed, his reputation would suffer no further damage should China’s deep-earth exploration fail to yield a breakthrough.

But if they do…