CLIMATE AND OIL GENESIS

Studies of the Caspian Sea, the Barents Sea and others, show that the rate of accumulation of organic matter in sediments and the nature of its initial change is largely dependent on climate. All known large oil pools are located in basins which had a warm environment at the time of deposition. Occurrences of gas in colder zones were associated with coal rather than oil. Exploration for. oil in polar areas should be restricted to rocks known to have been deposited in warm paleoclimatic conditions. All evidence denies the inorganic theories for the origin of oil. — M. Russell