On Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:32:40 -0500, Vic Smith wrote:

Here's what puzzles me when I hear talk about "drilling our own oil."
Isn't oil price set by the world market? Are "American" oil companies
drilling here going to sell only to American consumers?
That sounds like nationalization to me. Doesn't seem like drilling more
here will affect the world oil supply significantly enough to lower
prices as world demand increases. Devil in the details, and I never hear
anybody explaining how drilling more here will have real effect in
price. Does the gov get so much per barrel on the leases? Etc, etc.

This isn't a "political" question per se, but one more related to actual
local and global economics as they are currently practiced.

--Vic

Interesting question, and I don't have the answer, but a few facts. We
are still the world's third largest producer of oil, at 8.3 million
barrels per day (2005 est.) of which we export 1 million bbl/day. The
problem is we are also the biggest pigs on the planet. We consume 20 bbl/
day.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/us.html

If our production increases, the world's production increases, thereby,
lowering the world's prices. There is no reason to think all of the oil
produced here, would stay here.