In 1757, applying little more than observation and the limited analytical tools available in his time, Russian scholar, Mikhailo V. Lomonosov, is generally considered to have fathered the theory that crude oil, after "percolating" for "a great duration of time" might originate from biological material.
Nikolai Kudryavtsev, who died 1971, was a Russian petroleum geologist who tendered the abiogenic theory for the origin of petroleum, which states that based on pure science and not just observation, petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located in the Earth's crust and mantle. This is similar to the process producing methane volcanoes discovered on other planets which few suggest originate from biological material. He is also considered the father of the modern Russian oil industry which became the worlds largest oil producer this year.
Update 2020:
In the past few years, more gas and oil has been found in the United States alone than was suggested existed in the rest of the world 40 years ago. Thank god for $2 gas. At that time it was considered the "Peak Oil" theory and that there was only 12 years to go before the earth would become a dark, cold planet with everyone starving. Well, that theory fell apart, then they came up with the "global warming" "crisis." That theory has been debunked by real scientists but it continued to be pushed by the same communist/socialists who pushed "peak oil", desperate to tell you that the U.S.Constitution is too "old fashioned" and "inhibits" "progress." As if freedom is "old fashioned." That's not to say that the earth or the poles aren't getting hotter or colder. It just means that over millions of years it always has. And that there too many geological and astronomical forces that provide far more influence over the outcomes. Don't let them conflate "global warming" with pollution. Even animals don't defecate where they sleep.