[vonPalm]

Hello, this is a question regarding organic chemistry.
From what I have learned, there are many different kinds of hydrocarbons in a petroleum reservoir, but no hydrogen gas (H_{2). Is this really correct? And if so, why is that? There is a lot of hydrogen down there, so why no H2 gas?
Thank you!}

[vonPalm]

Sorry for the subscript, I'm really new to all this  . Anyway, here is the question in a more readable form  !

Hello, this is a question regarding organic chemistry.
From what I have learned, there are many different kinds of hydrocarbons in a petroleum reservoir, but no H₂ gas. Is this really correct? And if so, why is that? There is a lot of hydrogen down there, so why no Hydrogen gas?
Thank you!

[billnotgatez]

can hydrogen react easily

[vonPalm]

Aha, thanks! This is what I suspected though I could not find any information about it anywhere so I turned to this forum.
My hypothesis is like this: For a hydrogen atom, being part of an H₂ molecule is a more energy-rich state than being part of a hydrocarbon molecule, therefore the hydrocarbon state is preferred. Hence, an H₂ molecule in a petroleum reservoir would react with different kinds of hydrocarbons, saturating unsaturated HC molecules and/ or splitting up saturated HC chains into smaller molecules. At least this is what I think. Is this true?

[JGK]

Alternately, hydrogen trapped underground may have simply diffused through the porous rock formations and been lost into the atmosphere over the millennia.

The earth's crust is not a closed system.