More bad news for the Peak Oil doomsday cult. Russian boffins say they have proved that fossil fuels can be created synthetically by replicating the high pressure, high temperature conditions found in the upper parts of the Earth’s crust. The scientists, at the Lomonosov Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology and the Royal Insitutue of Technology in Stockholm published their work in June. Under conditions of the upper mantle of the Earth’s Crust, methane reacts to produce ethane, propane and butane. It means fossils aren’t needed to produce oil and gas.