  Recent advances in interdisciplinary fields as diverse as astrophysics,
cosmogeophysics, nuclear geology, etc. have led to interesting developments in
the non-organic theory of the genesis of petroleum. This theory, which holds
that petroleum is of an abiogenic primordial origin, provides an explanation
for certain features of petroleum geology that are hard to explain within the
standard organic framework. If the non-organic theory is correct, then
hydrocarbon reserves would be enormous and almost inexhaustable.
