You can bet if there were more oil ,the companies would be exporting it to other countries,for a higher price,just like is done with coal and timber instead of keeping it in the US.
In the later seventies due to the so called energy crunch, oil shale business boomed in western Colorado.Then the slump hit and the oil shale business folded up as there wasn't enough moeny in it.Same thing would happen today.
There have been no new refineries built in the US for 50yrs, I think the figure is. The oil companies aren't going to build more when the ones they have are runing at 100% capacity, just so the US citizen can get cheaper gas.Nor are they going to drila bunch more wells so the price would go down.
The last oil refinery built in the US was in 1976. There haven't been any more built becuse there hasn't been much need. Oil companies have found it far more worth their while to upgrad and expand existing refineries, rather than build new ones. Refineries, like the BP Whiting refinery outside Chicago are constantly upgraded and 'rebuilt' as needed. The Whiting refinery is one of the oldest in the US, dating back to the 1870's (IIRC), but the current Whiting facility just got something like a 4.5bn dollar upgrade; it's essentially a new refinery. There is one building that remains from the 1870's mostly for sentimentality sake.
On the other hand, alternative fuel refineries are popping up like daisies; hell, I attended the ground breaking of one of them just last week.
So there's no grand conspiracy on the oil refineries. As soon as we really need a new refinery, we'll build one. But as of last week, our refineries are only at 81.7% of production and have been in the low 80% for the past 4 years. With production numbers like that, you won't find anyone standing in line to build a refinery that isn't needed.
