[DustyMoment]

You can't permanently drive up the price of something by talking about a shortage.

True. That's why they have had to reintroduce the strategy about every 20 years or so - to get the additional spike in prices.

The only way to drive up prices is to restrict the supply. From an oil company's perspective it is insane to sit on inventory when the price is high.

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. My dad was an investigator for the Federal Trade Commission during the "oil embargo" of the 80s. He was assigned to find out what was really going on and what he discovered will shock you. He found oil storage tanks full to over flowing while people waited in long lines to buy their 10 gallons of gas. He discovered oil tankers loaded to the gunwales with oil parked just over the horizon where they couldn't be seen, because there was no place to put the oil.

Draw your own conclusions.

[Dan Evans]

He found oil storage tanks full to over flowing while people waited in long lines to buy their 10 gallons of gas.

As I recall those lines appeared during the Nixon and Carter administration. The reason gas lines appear is because of government controls keeping the price too low. Of course they kept supplies off the market. After Reagan was elected he removed the price controls and the price shot up, and the gas lines disappeared.

If the oil companies are allowed to charge whatever they can, you will not see people lining up for gas because they will sell those inventories with the high prices. This is something that regulators don't like to talk about.

Read this from Wikipedia:

Energy Crisis

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. My dad was an investigator for the Federal Trade Commission during the "oil embargo" of the 80s. He was assigned to find out what was really going on and what he discovered will shock you. He found oil storage tanks full to over flowing while people waited in long lines to buy their 10 gallons of gas. He discovered oil tankers loaded to the gunwales with oil parked just over the horizon where they couldn't be seen, because there was no place to put the oil.

Draw your own conclusions.

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My conclusion is that the govt instituted price controls so it didn't make economic sense to sell the oil at artificially low prices. I.E. price controls == shortages. Macroeconomics 101.