Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Sure, oil may be renewable if you want to wait a hundred million years for a century's worth of fuel. I say "may be" because the geological conditions would have to be right.
		
		
	 
this is broadly correct AIUI
renewable is a time span dependent concept..in the end the universe and the low entropy states it contains are non renewable..its all running down.
for a more human scale time span oil is not a renewable resource because the rate we use it outstrips the rate it is made.
if we estimate there are 3 trillion barrels of oil in the ground (YMMV) and the earth is 4.5 billion years oil then the average yearly production rate is a little less than a 1000 barrels a year... a bit more if we say oil only started forming after life stated a billion or so yrs after the formation of the earth
OTOH if abiotic oil is true (I do not hold to such views) and its being made at a renewable rate then oil must be being created at a rate of 30 billion barrels a year or so (yearly consumption of oil)
which means... the earth should contain 4.5 billion times 30 billion barrels of oil = 1.35X 10 to the 20 barrels
which is 2X10 to the 22 ltrs roughly 10 times the amount of water ..
ie there is 10 times as much oil on earth as there is water
is that credible?
I would say not.
at the end of the day everything is finite..get over it
Boris
London