Abstract
ONCE more the ubiquitous problem of the origin of petroleum is forced on our attention, this time as a practical matter rather than as a philosophical thesis. Dr. Murray Stuart writes a paper in the recent issue of the Journal of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists in which ‘working hypotheses’ in the geologist's search for oil form the main theme, the principal argument being that all exploration for petroleum is handicapped at the outset by the fact that little, if anything, is known concerning its origin. We appreciate the laws governing migration and accumulation of oil; we contemplate favourable geologic structures, providing the strata involved are oil-bearing, which are located with remarkable precision; but unless the oil manifests itself by seepage or in some indirect manner, there is little to guide the search. To this extent, it may be noted, the geology of petroleum differs from the geology of, for example, metalliferous ore deposits.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Geological Search for Oil. Nature 118, 500–501 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118500a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118500a0