Posted on 08/17/2014 3:17:37 PM PDT by ckilmer
OK thanks for that. It looks like it sells for more than the international price, especially in the last 4 years.
Which means we are paying top dollar for our own oil. Which is fine, but I don’t see how that is going to lead to “energy independence”. Energy independence for those who can afford it maybe.
I don’ see how that rule of not selling crude oil outside the USA is keeping prices down.
no you have is bass ackwards. The US price is less than the international price.
currently the way the interests in the oil patch work is that the drillers want the law changed so that they can sell oil directly onto the international market. This would enable them to enjoy the higher international price.
However, the refiners want to keep the law in place that forbids the export of crude because then they get to have the lower cost US crude to refine. They pay a lower price for the crude so they can undercut foreign refiners,grab market share and still make a profit.
Okay then I misread the chart. A positive spread means that it is selling for less? That is not clear to me from the chart.
In any case, it sounds like of like we have nationalized our oil production already if this law is in place.
I wouldn’t call that law nationalizing oil.
Nationalized oil is what the russians the saudis and most countries have these days. They have made oil production an agency of government and taken its revenues to pay government salaries.
The result is that innovation dies.
In the USA oil companies operate independently of the government. The oil fracking revolution has come despite the feds — not because of them.
The current US law banning the export of raw crude was put into effect in the 1970’s after opec embargoed oil and drove its price up.
If you are banned from selling your product internationally, that is not exactly “operating independently of the government”
True. “Independently” is a relative term. The oil industry could do much better if the feds allowed them to drill on federal lands. But they don’t. Nevertheless oil production has exploded.
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