As for 'we know where it is', well if that was the case, I'd be at the house and out of work instead of wrapping up a 145 hour day on a wellsite. We don't know where it all is, or there would be no 'Exploration' in E&P.
Who did the oil belong to when it was in the ground? The owner of the mineral rights. West of the Mississippi, that's half the Federal Government, and half private individuals.
There;s a reason a Federal Lease is called a Federal Lease. You lease the exploration rights for a fixed time, extended if you find and produce oil. You pay a royalty (up to 20%, negotiated in advance) on production to the mineral owner (in the case of the Federal Government, to the Government). The operator (that's the oil company) assumes the cost of doing all the various surveys for everything from 'cultural assets' to tortise nests, rare plants to raptors, and the costs of building locations, access, drilling the well, completing the well, any and all production infrastructure, and reclamation of the site and the road when done, as specified in the BLM manual.
If you don't find oil, or if someone finds a 'rare' plant, an inconveniently located decade abandoned eagle nest, or an arrowhead of 'great religious significance' or somesuch, you are out the money. No risk? Free? sheesh. Millions, no tens of millions were invested in areas the government closed off and revoked the paid for leases to in Utah and Wyoming without so much as a howdy do.
So you contend we give away 50 million barrels of oil a day. Fine. Where? Cite your source.
Here is one even you can be comfortable with: NY Times, and the US doesn't produce 50,000,000 barrels of oil a day, in fact far, far less.
In fact, the latest EIA figures show US production, onshore and off (combined), to be a mere 5.6 million barrels a day. Maybe the government is printing oil like money to give away?
I think I have adequately addressed your bullshit contentions.
You are absolutely right, and I am wrong. The US oil production is far less than 50 million barrels per day. The top google return (http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/oil_production.html ) says that it is 9 million barrels per day. But your sources says 5 million per day. I don’t know why there is such a discrepancy, if you know I’d be curious to learn. There may be some acounting or definition difference.
I should not have said anything about the oil business. It weakened my argument. (On the other hand, I have learned something.) But I wanted an easy example of an industry whose interests are served by less government, but for which less government has a consequence that is harmful to the national economy. That is a very radical idea, but it is not an unAmerican idea.
For example, Teddy Roosevelt used the government to break up monopolies. That’s using government to limit business freedom to help the economy and the nation.
Or, another example, the government in the post-Jungle years enacted food and drug safety regulations. That limited food business freedom but greatly reduced internal parasites and made people healthier.
Or the government removed lead from gasoline after studies showed elevated lead levels in childrens’ blood leading to mental diseases. That limited gasoline business freedom but made people healthier.
And the government banned illegal alien labor undercutting US labor. That limits business freedom (at least in theory) to help US wages.
There are many examples of government action on behalf of the population that limits business freedom to increase our freedom. We ought not to turn a blind eye to the historic role of government in promoting American prosperity. There is a great line in “Lost Horizon,” that goes “Moderation in all things, including moderation.” Even the push for small government has to be moderated, or we will trade political tyranny for economic tyranny.