Do the Drill, Drill, Drill people think American Oil Companies will break from OPEC

[bushisanidiot]

and give their oil over to an american government run program?

I'm really confused about their reasoning that somehow oil will be cheaper if "we" drill it "ourselves", when "we" doesn't include American Big Oil... they are capitalists who will sell to the highest bidder. Why would they, or how could they legally, give americans a cheaper price for oil than another country?

Could someone explain their logic to me?

[NightWatcher]

1. that's my big question that no "drill people" will answer

the oil companies LIKE MAKING RECORD PROFITS and do not want to cut us a deal.

They already export almost a third of the domestically produced oil to other countries.

[tblue]

2. It will be owned by multinational corporations and sold on the global market

You are exactly right. Any oil drilled here won't even belong to AMERICAN oil companies, let alone be sold to Americans at bargain prices.

It will be owned by multinational corporations and sold on the global market to China, India, and elsewhere, including the US.

[Union Thug]

3. I don't think there is any 'logic.' Unless they agree that nationalizing

would be the only way to guarantee those resources would stay at home, then there is not point to the 'drill, drill, drill,' meme.

And even then with less than 3% of the entire world's petroleum resources, it wouldn't help that much, and certainly is not a long term solution. We need to embrace Obama's plan to invest in green technology and produce thousands of industry related jobs in the process.

[bushisanidiot]

6. That's the thing.. if they were for nationalizing the oil business in america

maybe more people would be for it.. but then they'd be great big hypocrites because that is the major grief they have with Hugo Chavez because he nationalized Venezuela's oil.

I'd like Biden and Obama to both pin Palin and McCondo down on how drilling in the U.S. will ensure that "our" oil prices will go down. They should work it into the debates or maybe while out campaigning.

[louis-t]

4. It's a sales pitch. It doesn't have to make sense.

They get the nitwits to keep repeating the lie. Repugs are selling notion that there is enough oil underneath Kansas or South Dakota or someplace to make us energy independant "if only the Dems would let us drill". Every time I hear seemingly intelligent people repeat the mantra, I ask why not drill in the 65 million acres already leased? I have never had a response. They are speechless. There is no answer.

[TexasLawyer]

5. It won't be any cheaper

Oil proces are set on the world market. If OPEC perceives increased US exploration and production activity, OPEC can decide to limit production by a commensurate amount (as adjusted for then-current world demand) and maintain price stability.

Major oil companies won't necessarily start drilling domestically if new areas are opened up for that purpose. It's cheaper to produce in Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, etc... Also to the extent they materially increase production they shoot themselves in the foot financially because they lower prices through oversupply. I have read that the majors are not really all that interested in drilling ANWAR (in the absence of major incentives from the federal government).

The US has been experiencing very high prices but that still has not been an incentive to major increases in domestic exploration and production. There are plenty of undrilled leases out there already.



http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/Visual1.pdf

This is a map of the current leases in the Gulf of Mexico. All of the empty green squares are current leases held by the oil companies. They are empty (no black dot) because there is no current exploration or production. There are a lot of empty green squares.