I think you missed my point. They essentially are nationalized because there is no competition among the oil companies. They are monopolies and should be broken up so that there is competition. All of the people on this thread who claim high oil prices are the result of free market capitalism don't know what a free market is. OPEC and the oil companies make sure that a free oil market is an oxymoron. I suppose some people on this thread think the high price of diamonds and cocaine is the result of free markets.
I wasn't being serious; it was a sarcastic proposal to see if anyone would actually agree with me. I'm not sure I see evidence of a monopoly; a company really only has a monopoly if it doesn't have any competitors, and there are still a number of oil companies (presumably competing with each other), even if they are consolidating.