Is the origin of petroleum organic or inorganic? In a discourse to the Royal Institution on November 11, Sir Robert Robinson argued that both theories are correct and that petroleum has a duplex origin. He went on to consider the carbonaceous constituents of certain meteorites and noted a possible implication relating to the origin of life on Earth.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Mendeleev, D. L., J. Russ. Phys. Chem. Soc., 9, 1 (1877). Compare also Berthelot, D., C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 62, 949 (1866).
Cex, B. B., Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 30, 645 (1946).
Smith, P. V., Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 38, 377 (1954). Stevens, N. P., Bray, E. E., and Evans, E. D., Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 40, 975 (1956).
Marcusson, J., Chem. Ztg., 32, 377, 391 (1908). Whitmore, F. C., A.P.I. Besearch Project 43 B, Proc. Amer. Petrol. Inst., 25, 100 (1945).
Treibs, A., Annalen, 519, 42 (1934).
Bray, E. E., and Evans, E. D., Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 22, 8 (1962).
Lochte, H. L., Ind. Eng. Chem., 44, 2597 (1952). Lochte, H. L., and Liftman, E. B., The Petroleum Acids and Bases (Chemical Publ. Co., New York, 1955).
Eiama, E., and Jurg, J. W., Science, 144, 1451 (1964).
Channon, H. J., and Chibnall, A. C., Biochem. J., 23, 170 (1929). Collison, D. L., and Smedley-Maclean, I., Biochem. J., 25, 606 (1931). Kuhn, R., and Grundmann, C., Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges., 65, 898 (1932).
Piper, S. H., Chibnall, A. C., Pollard, A., Williams, E. F., and Sahai, P. N., Biochem. J., 25, 2175, 2189 (1934). Chibnall, A. C., and Piper, S. H., Biochem. J., 28, 2008 (1934). Compare Eglinton, G., Gonzalez, A. G., Hamilton, R. J., and Raphael, R. A., Nature, 193, 739 (1962) and references cited therein.
Martin, R. L., Winters, J. C., and Williams, J. A., Nature, 199, 110 (1963).
Dean, R. A., and Whitehead, E. V., Tetrahedron Letters, 21, 768 (1961). Bendoraitis, J. G., Brown, B. L., and Hepner, L. S., Anal. Chem., 34, 49 (1962). Mair, B. J., Krouskop, N. C., and Mayer, T. J., J. Chem. Eng. Data, 7, 420 (1962). Compare Zelinsky, N. D. (on sterol precursors of oil), Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges., 60B, 1794 (1927). Zelinsky, N. D., and Lavrovski, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges., 61 B, 1291 (1928).
Brunnock, J. V., Nature, 212, 385 (1966).
Silverman, S. R., in Isotopic and Cosmic Chemistry, 92 (North Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam, 1964). Colombo, D., Gazzarrini, P., Gonflantini, R., Sironi, G., and Tongiorgi, E., in Adv. Org. Geochem., 1964, (edit. by G. D. Hobson), 279 (Pergamon Press. London, 1966).
ZoBell, C. E., and Stone, R. W., Indust. Eng. Chem., 44, 2567 (1939).
Landes, K. K., in Petroleum Geology, second ed. (1959).
Sylvester-Bradley, P. C., and King, R. J., Nature, 198, 720 (1963).
Project No. 6, American Petroleum Inst.
Compare The Chemistry of Petroleum Hydrocarbons (edit. by Sachanen, A. D.), 1, chap. 2 (Reinhold, New York, 1954).
Martin, R. L., and Winters, J. C., Anal. Chem., 31, 1957 (1959).
Eglov, C., Hulla, G., and Komarewsky, V. L., Isomerization of Pure Hydrocarbons, A. C. S. Monograph No. 88 (Reinhold, New York, 1912). Pines, H., in The Chemistry of Petroleum Hydrocarbons, 3, 9 (Reinhold, New York, 1955).
Report from I.C.I. Research Laboratory, Billingham.
Friedel, R. A., and Sharkey, jun., A. G., Science, 139, 1203 (1963).
Schleyer, P. von R., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 79, 3392 (1957).
Mair, B. J., and Martinez-Pico, J. L., Chem. and Eng. News 40, 54 (1962).
Wilson, A. T., Nature, 188, 1007 (1960). Johnson, C. B., and Wilson, A. T., Nature, 204, 181 (1964).
Wilson, A. T., Nature, 196, 11 (1962).
Marx, P. C., paper presented to Amer. Chem. Soc., Philadelphia Meeting, April 5–10, 1964. Compare Marx, P. C., and Bretsacher, P., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 85, 3518 (1963).
Miller, S. L., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 77, 2251 (1955). Miller, S. L., and Wey, H. C., Science, 130, 245 (1959).
Harada, K., and Fox, S. W., Nature, 201, 335 (1964).
Bahadur, K., and Srivastava, R. B., Ind. J. App. Chem., 23, 131 (1960).
Calvin, M., “The Bakerian Lecture”, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 288, 441 (1965).
Calvin, M., Eglinton, G., Scott, P. M., Belsky, T., and Burlingame, A. L., Science, 145, 263 (1964). Calvin, M., Burlingame, A. L., Haug, P., and Belsky, T., Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., Washington, 54, 1406 (1965). Calvin, M., Belsky, T., Johns, R. B., McCarthy, E. D., Burlingame, A. L., and Richter, M., Nature, 206, 446 (1965).
Nagy, B., and Bitz, M. C., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 101, 210 (1963). Hodgson, B. W., and Baker, B. L., Nature, 202, 125 (1964). Nagy, B., Murphy, T. J. M., Modzeleski, V. E., Rouser, G., Claus, G., Hennessy, D. J., Colombo, U., and Gazzarrina, F., Nature, 202, 228 (1964); also private communications to which further detailed reference is intended. The subject has been reviewed by Professor H. C. Urey, for example, paper presented at COSPAR Meeting, Mar del Plata, Argentina, May 1965.
Arrhenius, S., Varldarnas Utveckeling, seventh edition, Stockholm (1917). The fifth edition (Stockholm, 1907) was quoted by von Euler, H., in his Vaxt-kemi (Stockholm, 1907). Haldane, J. B. S., New Biology, 10 (Penguin Books, Ltd., London, 1951). Sokolov, N. V., Byull. Mosl. O-va Ispyt. Prirody, 3, 720 (1890). Proc. First. Intern. Un. Biochem., Symp. on the Origin of Life on the Earth, Moscow, 1957 (Pergamon, London, 1959). Contributions by Urey, H. C., 16–23, Bernal, J. D., 38–54, Levin, B. Yu, 67–76, Pirie, N. W., 76–84. Compare also Oparin, A. I., The Origin of Life, third English ed. (Oliver and Boyd, London, 1957). Oparin, A., Life, Its Nature, Origin and Development (Academic Press, New York, 1961).
Bernal, J. D., Nature, 193, 1127 (1962). Lectures on the duplex origin of petroleum have been delivered at many centres during the past four years, for example, Bonn ( Robinson, R., Angewandte Chemie, 74, 508, 1962). Milan, Delhi, Tokyo, Aerojet Corp., California, to many university chemical societies in the United Kingdom and the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Dublin Section. The first publication was Catalyst, 6, 41 (1961) (industrial journal of Shell Chemicals U.K., Ltd.). Compare also The Scientist Speculates (edit. by Good, J. J.), 377 (Gollancz, London, 1963). New Scientist, 624, September 9 (1965).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ROBINSON, R. The Origins of Petroleum. Nature 212, 1291–1295 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2121291a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2121291a0
This article is cited by
-
Organic compounds in the early atmosphere formed abiotically from atomic carbon
Geologische Rundschau (1982)
-
Significance of the even-carbon n-paraffin preference of a Spanish crude oil
Nature (1974)
-
Review of organic matter in the Orgueil meteorite
Space Life Sciences (1971)
-
Origins of Oil, a Correction and Further Comment on the Brunnock1 Even C-Number Predominance in Certain Higher Alkanes of African Crudes, and on the Biogenesis of Nonacosane
Nature (1967)