Petroleum? Is it really a non renewable resource?

Question

Ok. It is fact an absolute fact that petroleum is a non renewable resource?

Answer 1

It really is a non-renewable resource.

However, non-renewability is relative rather than absolute. There are still processes going on that will form petroleum over the course of millions of years. If we were using it as slowly as it were being formed, it would be reasonable to call it renewable. But that's probably billions of times less than the rate we're using it at. The rate at which new petroleum is being formed is, for all practical purposes, zero. But it's not absolutely zero.

Answer 2

You can turn just about any organic substance into a hydrocarbon in a lab. But its costs $$$. And people hate spending money.

So in a sense its both non renewable and renewable. It just depends on how you look at. Do you look at theoretically (renewable) or realistically (non renewable).

Answer 3

Certainly it is a renewable resource. Its just produced VERY slowly. The problem is that we use it hundreds of thousands of times faster than it can be produced naturally.

Answer 4

no it would take millions of years