Daily Devotional – March 13

Geology

For more than 100 years, oil or “black gold” has fueled our cars,  trucks and economy. But how did these vast fields of oil form? The chemistry of oil offers some important clues. One of the chemicals in crude oils is porphyrin. Most petroleum geologists believe crude oils form mostly from plants, such as diatoms (single-celled marine and freshwater photosynthetic creatures), and beds of coal (huge fossilized masses of plant debris). The moderate heating of brown coals in the lab can produce crude oil and natural gas containing porphyrin. Keep in mind that animal blood also contains porphyrins. Oil can be made from animal slaughterhouse waste within two hours.

For porphyrins to be present in today’s crude oils means they have been kept from the presence of oxygen because porphyrins break down rapidly in the presence of oxygen. We do not see oil containing porphyrins forming today because oxygen destroys them during the oil formation. Yet worldwide, we find vast petroleum deposits that do contain this chemical. This supports the conclusion that much of the world’s oil reserves are the direct result of a worldwide catastrophic flood covering trillions of pounds of vegetation and animals. They were buried so rapidly that oxygen was not present to destroy the porphyrins. Deep rapid burial by additional sediments would have created sufficient heat to generate crude oils and natural gases. Subsequently, these migrated, became trapped in reservoir rocks, and accumulated to form gas and oil deposits. So, from what is oil made? Primarily squished vegetation and animals that were rapidly buried in the Flood of Noah’s day.

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth….

~ Genesis 6:17

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.