I'm certainly no expert on the economics of the petroleum industry. (I worked for a large oil & gas company in the late '80's but I'm no expert, for sure), but I find it ponderous that with the price of crude topping $100/bbl you don't hear much about any anticipated increase in the production of domestic crude. I would think that at these prices, domestic exploration and production would increase but I really haven't heard much about it. But then again, I haven't sought out any information.
Is domestic exploration being constrained by environmental regulations? Are we just sitting on our domestic reserves hoping the other guys run out further down the road? I realize that bringing production capacity on line has a certain lead time and doesn't appear overnight but I see or hear no evidence of anything in the works. Am I leaving something out of the equation?
Just my $0.02, pre-tax of course.
Any thoughts from the oil patch?