What if oil is not a fossil fuel? There is a hypothesis that hydrocarbons are produced inside a planet's mantle.
https://postcanadian.com/ambiogenic-petroleum-fossil-fuels-science/
There is a little known scientific hypothesis that challenges our conventional wisdom about oil and gas. The abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis proposes that petroleum was formed from deep carbon deposits, rather than from the decomposition of organic matter. ...
... If the abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis were true, it would imply that petroleum resources like oil are not finite or derived from ancient biological matter, but instead are continuously generated through geochemical processes deep within the Earth's mantle and crust. This would have several implications for the abundance of oil and natural gas on Earth. ...
Article lists names of a few geologists and professors who have been bandying the hypothesis about. It notes that that "peak oil theory" has been used to drive up prices and I would add, of course, that it is another driver (a non-environmentally-linked one) for Net Zero nonsense.
Mind you, even if the earth could produce petroleum indefinitely, we may still be limited in our use of it somewhat depending on how fast petroleum percolates up through the rock into the voids from which we draw it out; we may be drawing it up faster than it can re-form even if this theory is true.
It might be worthwhile to revisite the oldest (and presumaby empty) oil wells and see if they are re-filling at all--these date from the mid-1800s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Oil_Well
At any rate, it's interesting and worth exploring as it adds another bit of intrigue to the whole de-carbonization movement.
It has been proven that oil is produced from calcium carbonate and iron oxide. Heat and pressure causes oil to be produces from compounds.
We all grew up believing that oil is a fossil fuel, and just about every day this ‘fact’ is mentioned in newspapers and on TV. However, let us not forget what Lenin said – “A lie told often enough becomes truth.”
The great French chemist Marcellin Berthelot particularly scorned the hypothesis of a biological origin for petroleum. Berthelot first carried out experiments involving, among others, a series of what are now referred to as Kolbe reactions and demonstrated the generation of petroleum by dissolving steel in strong acid. He produced the suite of n-alkanes and made it plain that such were generated in total absence of any “biological” molecule or process. Berthelot’s investigations were later extended and refined by other scientists, including Biasson and Sokolov, all of whom observed similar phenomena and likewise concluded that petroleum was unconnected to biological matter.
In 1951, the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins was first enunciated by Nikolai A. Kudryavtsev at the All-Union petroleum geology congress. Kudryavtsev analyzed the hypothesis of a biological origin of petroleum, and pointed out the failures of the claims then commonly put forth to support that hypothesis.
Scientists and engineers found that oil is not a ‘fossil fuel’ but is a natural product of planet Earth – the high-temperature, high-pressure continuous reaction between calcium carbonate and iron oxide – two of the most abundant compounds making up the Earth’s crust.
A team consisting of Russian scientists and Dr J. F. Kenney, of Gas Resources Corporation, Houston, USA, have actually built a reactor vessel and proven that oil is produced from calcium carbonate and iron oxide.
Needless to say, the last people to tell us the truth about oil will be the oil producers and oil companies, for they of course have a vested interest in perpetuating the myth that oil is a fossil fuel and that it will soon be exhausted, in order to ratchet up the price for as long as they can. And don’t look to the Russians to enlighten the world with the truth about oil either, for they are surely laughing now that as oil price continue to increase.