This has nothing to do with supply and these companies can care less about how much you pay at the pump.
IT'S ABOUT LAND!!
An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in
Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in
New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada.
Morton said the leases, which companies can lock up for 10 years with annual rents of only $2 to $3 an acre, are an economic boon to some companies
because they count as assets that can make debt refinancing easier while also attracting potential investors.
For oil companies, vast holdings of federal oil and gas leases, even if undeveloped, show up in their financial records as assets that help attract
investors.
“Absolutely,” said Mark Burford, director of investor relations for Tom Brown Inc., a Denver-based independent oil company. Tom Brown has more
than 850,000 acres of federal land under lease, but just 22 percent is listed as producing, according to BLM records.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
If it was about supply, they can start drilling in land that they already have leases on tomorrow.
It's simple, they lease all this land from the government for pennies. Like 2 to 3 dollars an acre.
They then put it on there books as an asset and they will get the fmv for the land.
So if the land is worth 20 or 30 dollars an acre, then these companies have an instant profit on there books.
This attracks more investors and if there public it could help increase stock price.
Again, they can start drilling tomorrow in the unproduced land that they already have leases for.
ANWR and some of these other places that they want to drill, the land must be worth alot of money on the open market.
Just open your eyes and FOLLOW THE MONEY!!
Here's a list of oil companies and the amount of land they lease.
wid.ap.org...
Of course they don't want to produce more now, because they are MAKING A BUNDLE as global demand increases.
They will get these new leases for places like ANWR and then prices will come down and they will say they don't need to drill there now. They will
also have the the leases on these lands for 10 years or more.