Oil isn’t a fossil fuel.
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 video1 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 Rockefeller2 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...
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