This is pure, but not illogical speculation.

If there was primative life at one time on Mars
and Oil deposits we find on Earth are believed formed by relatively primative life forms,
Is it a jump of logic to think there may be deposits of oil on Mars?

There is virtually no data to speak of at this point, but the possibility is not out of the question to my way of thinking.

If so what are the implications?
It probably would not be cost effective to import the oil to Earth,
but it could make settlements on Mars much more viable.
There is no Oxygen to burn it with, but perhaps it could be used in plastics and chemical industries.

Any rational arguments for or against or about implications are welcome.
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I think this is something they are specificly looking for with the Rover vehicles. They are taking pics of all the areas they can to SEE what is up, and you can be SURE this is on the 'watch' list. Checking soil samples and looking for ground level tale tale signs.

Yeah Slanka mate I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, It would probably not be logistically viable to import it from mars.....but interesting proposition

We better hope there is tons of it there, because it will cost a lot to extract and transport it back to earth

I dont see why it would matter. If anything got to mars to extract oil, it wouldn't be big enough to bring back much...probably just enough for a car or two for 2 weeks or so.

Frankly, I see it as a big stretch.

It's not 100% clear how the Earth oil deposits were formed. Some think it was due to massive sea creatures and all, so maybe it was not that primitive.

So, until we find a skeleton or two on Mars, this is a pure speculation. Amen.

while i don't know how viable it would be to try to get oil from mars to here. i imagine they definately are looking for signs of it. if found i imagine that we will see one heck of a boost in space exploration and a newer bigger shuttle and shuttle program in a big hurry. that followed by a "pure"spaceship to transport it, picture huge tanks with a drive moter atached to act as a ferry, and i do mean huge say a few exon valdize sized tanks. with non atmosphere enviroment there is little to cap a size for it or the need for stream lineing. (ok i'm drooling just thinking about it). it would have to be imense just to even try to make such a long trip feasable.

if you were to use a human as oposed to a robot crew you would also pay prenium wages with a short term stay as travel time would be the most time consumeing part. unless of course you were to actualy inhabit it at the same time. all in all an extremly expensive venture all round. with little room for proffit.

you could of course set it up like the very old novel The Moon IS A Harsh Mistress ( i can't remember the author off hand). without of course the ability to drop rocks on earth. basicaly a penal coliny of forced labourers. (hmmm bad thought drogo no cookie)

I think that if they did find oil on Mars, the significance would be that there was previous life. Gas prices aren't high enough right now to warrant shipping oil from Mars back to Earth, maybe in a week or two. Though, what if they found gold

fossil fuels are too primitive and too costly for relativly little benefit to import from another planet. Besides fossil fuels cause pollution and hopefully we wont have to depend on them for much longer. Uranium extraction might be more along the lines of profitable for extraction since it's energy uses are far greater than that of oil.