Scientists still have no consensus on how oil was formed. There are two fundamentally different theories of the origin of oil.

According to the first - organic, or biogenic - from the remains of ancient organisms and plants that have been deposited at the bottom of the seas or buried under continental conditions for millions of years.

Most scientists today explain the origin of oil by the biogenic theory. However, non-organics also give a number of arguments in favor of their point of view.There are various versions of the possible inorganic origin of oil in the bowels of the earth and other cosmic bodies, but they all rely on the same facts.Firstly, many, although not all, deposits are associated with fault zones. According to the proponents of the inorganic concept, oil rises from great depths closer to the Earth's surface through these faults. Secondly, the place of birth is not only in sedimentary, but also in igneous and metamorphic rocks (however, they could be there as a result of migration).

In addition, hydrocarbons are found in the substance erupting from volcanoes.

Finally, the third and most weighty argument in favor of the inorganic theory is that hydrocarbons exist not only on Earth, but also in meteorites, comet tails, in the atmosphere of other planets and in scattered cosmic matter.