As for the oil compaines, everyone wants new refineries, more drilling, pipelines, etc. but wants the products of this tremendous capital investment to be free.
It simply does not work that way.
About half of this problem comes from the ecowhackos regulating refineries out of business, restricting drilling, etc.
They even fought coalbed methane production the whole time they were demanding that power plants burn natural gas instead of coal.
Natural Gas is our main heating fuel up here (North Dakota), where heat is not optional, but the reserves have been squandered to run air conditioners in LA.
These same people will gladly blame "BIG OIL" right along with the Socialist media.
Funny how people will complain about service stations making a few (less than 10) cents a gallon on gas, but not carp aout the price of a can of wino wieners (vienna sausages) in the convenience store.
The well I am working on right now will cost the oil company about 3.5 million when it is completed. I expect it will produce about 400 bbls per day on average, for about 4 years (starts with more, but will decline). When that is done, the well will be sold to a smaller company who will wring more oil out of it, and eventually be plugged, and the site reclaimed and restored. In the end, you will not be able to tell there was an oil well here.
As the production from this well is declining, other wells must be drilled to replace the producing reserve that will be used up here. This requires a tremendous capital investment, just to keep up with declining reserves by replacing them with new discoveries and new wells.
Gaining on that curve, actually increasing the overall amount of oil available involves even more.
The money has to come from somewhere.
Where you located I work in O&G servicing...coiled tubing, wireline, fracing, stimulation and well control...Houston Texas...