Oil is a hydrocarbon that comes from the accumulation of plant (and animal) matter that gets compressed by the accumulation of rock over top.  Thus, you need a lot of plants growing and dying, and then millions of years later getting covered by layers of sediment.  The sediment turns to rock and the plants to oil and coal.  Gas is usually a byproduct.  This all takes 10s or 100s of millions of years.

So Joe has heard this somewhere and thinks AHA!  Alaska must have one time been very warm so Global warming is natural!

Duh, when the oil was laid down, the plate that Alaska was on was near the equator.  During the 100s of millions of years since, the plate drifted towards the north pole where it is now very cold.

Thus proving the adage that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing in the hands of a self-righteous moron.

By the by.  As a planet we are now accumulating very little plant matter because of draining swamps and slash and burn agriculture.  100 million years from now our progeny will be cursing us.  "We'd have some oil right now if it weren't for those damn short-sighted ancestors of ours".  :)