Abiogenic theories reject the supposition that certain molecules found within petroleum, known as biomarkers, are indicative of the biological origin of petroleum. They contend that some of these molecules could have come from the microbes that the petroleum encounters in its upward migration through the crust, that some of them are found in meteorites, which have presumably never contacted living material, and that some can be generated abiogenically by plausible reactions in petroleum.[10]

The hypothesis is founded primarily upon:
Proponents Item
Gold The presence of methane on other planets, meteors, moons and comets [20][21]
Gold, Kenney Proposed mechanisms of abiotically chemically synthesizing hydrocarbons within the mantle [9][10][11]
Kudryavtsev, Gold Hydrocarbon-rich areas tend to be hydrocarbon-rich at many different levels[citation needed]
Kudryavtsev, Gold Petroleum and methane deposits are found in large patterns related to deep-seated large-scale structural features of the crust rather than to the patchwork of sedimentary deposits[citation needed]
Gold Interpretations of the chemical and isotopic composition of natural petroleum[citation needed]
Kudryavtsev, Gold The presence of oil and methane within non-sedimentary rocks upon the Earth [22]
Gold The existence of methane hydrate deposits[citation needed]
Gold Perceived ambiguity in some assumptions and key evidence used in the orthodox biogenic petroleum theories [9]
Gold Bituminous coal creation is based upon deep hydrocarbon seeps[citation needed]
Gold Surface carbon budget and oxygen levels stable over geologic time scales[citation needed]
Kudryavtsev, Gold Biogenic theories do not explain some hydrocarbon deposit characteristics[citation needed]
Szatmari The distribution of metals in crude oils fits better with upper serpentinized mantle, primitive mantle and chondrite patterns than oceanic and continental crust, and show no correlation with sea water[23]
Gold The association of hydrocarbons with helium, a noble gas[citation needed]
Gold Deep microbial hypothesis of hydrocarbon generation