The United States currently produces 8 million barrels of oil and other petroleum liquids a day and consumes about 21 million.
However, Oil & Gas industry is drilling on just a fraction of areas it already has access to. Of the 90 million offshore acres the industry has leases to, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, it is estimated that upwards of 70 million are not producing oil, according to oil-industry sources.
That fact begs the question: Are oil companies deliberately not drilling on the land to limit supply and drive up oil prices?
I’ve read dozen of articles trying to understand the economics. The best explanation – that isn’t part of some X-Files type conspiracy theory – is that the industry is holding out, hoping the government will open areas closer to shore that would be cheaper to work on than the leases that they already have.