WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Oil isn’t a fossil fuel.
OUR VERDICT
False. Petroleum oil is derived from organisms that lived millions of years ago, and is therefore a fossil fuel.
AAP FACTCHECK - Petroleum oil is derived from the remains of living organisms that existed millions of years ago, despite claims online that "fossil fuels are a myth".
Experts say the organic origins of oil are well understood, while suggestions the concept was a marketing exercise have been debunked numerous times.
The claim appears in a Facebook video with the caption: "The truth about oil."
The clip features the heading "DINOSAURS NEVER EXISTED FOSSIL FUELS ARE A MYTH".
It features extracts from a 1994 interview with a man named L Fletcher Prouty, who suggested petroleum oil isn't derived from formerly living matter.
Prouty claimed oil magnate John D Rockefeller worked to get petroleum oil classified as an organic substance to create the false perception it was scarce and would eventually run out, thereby increasing its value.
Arguing fossils have never been discovered at the depths at which oil is found, Prouty said oil isn't a fossil fuel.
"There has never been a fossil, a real fossil, found below 16,000 feet. We mine oil, or we drill for oil, at 30,000, 33,000, 28,000 [feet] every day of the week," he said.
"So right there we rule it out that it isn't fossil fuel. It's called fossil fuel for the minds of the public to feel that it is an asset that is running out, being depleted."
Experts, however, told AAP FactCheck that while there are alternative theories about the origins of oil, there's clear evidence it's derived from formerly living matter, and reserves of inorganic origin have never been found.
Prouty was a retired US Air Force colonel who worked in government intelligence during the 1950s and 1960s and died in 2001, according to an obituary in The Guardian.
He became a proponent of conspiracy theories related to the assassination of John F Kennedy and was said to be the basis for whistleblower Colonel X in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK.
The Facebook clip is taken from an extended interview with Prouty.
His theories about the origins of oil are also published on the prouty.org website, which features his claims it's found too deep to be organic and "must originate far below and gradually work its way up into well-depth areas accessable [sic] to surface drilling".
The theory that petroleum oil isn't derived from living organisms and is therefore "abiotic", or "abiogenic", has been around for more than a century.
Scientific consensus, however, is that oil is derived from the remains of small marine plants and microorganisms preserved in sedimentary rock and turned into oil under pressure and heat over millions of years.
This is consistent with definitions of fossil fuels given by a wide range of sources, including Britannica and the US Energy Information Administration.
A 2006 review, Abiogenic Origin of Hydrocarbons, records the most prominent proponents of the theory have been Soviet scientists and a British astronomer.
When these theories were in vogue in the Soviet Union, scientific techniques were not sufficiently developed to definitively prove the origin of oil deposits, the review says.
Later, however, new technology enabled greater analysis of the "biomarkers", or organic constituents, of petroleum, and the review concludes the abiogenic theories are "invalid".
Some continue to advocate for an inorganic origin of oil and a number of published papers promote the theory, including experiments suggesting it's theoretically possible for hydrocarbons - which make up oil - to develop deep in the earth's mantle.
Experts say the theory is so far unproven, while there is good evidence that oil discovered to date is derived from decomposed living matter.
Simon George, an expert in petroleum geochemistry at Macquarie University, explained that while a small fraction of methane gas - another hydrocarbon - may have abiogenic origins, all known oil derives from organic matter.
"Despite much searching in deep rocks, no oil has been found that can unambiguously be ascribed to an abiogenic origin," Professor George told AAP FactCheck.
Most petroleum oil has chemical structures, called biomarkers, that link them to an organic source, he said.
Sometimes these biomarkers aren't present in oil found deep underground due to the immense heat, but this oil still has other characteristics showing it's derived from living organisms.
Prof George said Prouty is also incorrect that fossils haven't been discovered below 16,000 feet (4877 metres).
Curtin University petroleum geologist Chris Elders told AAP FactCheck that while there's a small chance some oil could be produced abiotically, no discoveries show this has occurred.
"All of the oil that is currently produced has a biogenic origin," Professor Elders said, adding that there's clear evidence showing oil is derived from formerly living matter.
Oil and other fossil fuels have carbon isotopes that are similar to the living organisms from which they're derived, he said, which helps prove their biological origin.
Biomarkers in oil can also link fossil fuels to the organisms they're derived from, Prof Elders said.
"This similarly excludes an abiogenic origin for oil and gas - the isotope and geochemical signatures do not support it," he said.
The fact conventional fossils - such as shells or dinosaur bones - haven't been found at the depths of some oil reserves, doesn't mean oil isn't derived from organic matter, Prof Elders explained.
Fossil fuel deposits are derived from soft organic material that are rarely preserved in the way bones or shells are.
"To cite the absence of fossils from depths at which oil is found is misleading," he said, "quite apart from the very low chance of encountering a fossil in the narrow diameter of a drill bit at depth below the surface."
While it's true oil is relatively abundant, Prof Elders added, the term "fossil fuel" isn't used to make it appear scarce, it's just a useful way of describing its origin.
The claim John D Rockefeller coined the term to create a false perception of scarcity has been debunked multiple times, including by AAP FactCheck and Reuters.
A Google Book Search shows the term has been used to describe petroleum oil in books since the 1700s.
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