[OH4life]

Don’t we just buy our oil at international market prices? As far as I know, oil from alaska doesn’t get subsidized to be cheaper if its consumed in the US (we don’t have a nationalized oil company, and we shouldn’t!). If you’re an oil company, it just doesn’t make any sense to sell oil here cheaper if a country like Japan or China is willing to pay more for it. We’ll never increase production enough to become a net exporter, it just ain’t gonna happen.

[The_Reader_David]

Actually, if we pulled out all the stops, we could probably become a net exporter of petroleum, but only is oil prices hit the point where oil shale is competitive. I believe the U.S. has more oil reserves the Saudi Arabia, but only when oil shale is included in the calculation.

[kellynla]

“Don’t we just buy our oil at international market prices? As far as I know, oil from alaska doesn’t get subsidized to be cheaper if its consumed in the US (we don’t have a nationalized oil company, and we shouldn’t!). If you’re an oil company, it just doesn’t make any sense to sell oil here cheaper if a country like Japan or China is willing to pay more for it. We’ll never increase production enough to become a net exporter, it just ain’t gonna happen.”

I’ll let “Thackney” respond since this is his field.

[gjones77]

If America was to produce it’s own oil, yes it would be sold at the international market price, which would then drop do to an increase in supply.

It would also go a long way to stabilize the oil markets prices since one little utterance from a Middle Eastern dictator wouldn’t cause massive spikes, we would essentially remove almost all volatility from the market.

[thackney]

Don’t we just buy our oil at international market prices?

Yes.

As far as I know, oil from alaska doesn’t get subsidized to be cheaper if its consumed in the US

Correct. The majority of the oil produced in Alaska is ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Anadarko. It is hardly subsidized. The taxes paid are some of the highest in the world.

If you’re an oil company, it just doesn’t make any sense to sell oil here cheaper if a country like Japan or China is willing to pay more for it.

Did you forget your first point? What would make you believe that America, the world's largest single consumer country of oil is paying below market rates?

The fact is it is cheaper to sell Alaska oil in the US West Coast because it is closer than any other market like China or Japan. Buyers pay the going rate for comparable grades of oil. The seller will have to pay the cost to get the prodect to the markets.