Sky News economics and data editor Ed Conway has produced another short and information filled segment looking at how the U.S. become the biggest oil producer in the world. Well worth the 5-minutes and helps to contextualize many of the geopolitical shifts currently underway. WATCH:
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When you factor in the U.S. control over Venezuela oil production, well, things look even stronger.
I wish there was a way to price oil differently.
The dems have zero policies and price is all they can run on 🙁
Price is largely dictated by supply and demand, but heavily attenuated by laws and regulations, industry standards, etc. All between overlapping Federal, State, and local jurisdictions.
That’s to say that bureaucrats make things needlessly more expensive with the costs of regulatory compliance. Speaking of which, I will pick on California for this one. Between specialized fuel blends, stricter emissions standards then Federal limits, and a plethora of State and local laws and ordinances California is quite hostile to industry.
Sacramento also gains more net revenue on every gallon of fuel in that State sold then anyone else does in the production, refining, and distribution chains with respect to their margins.
The City of London has a lot to say about the price of oil. They are the Insurance Carrier (Lloyd’s of London) and dominate the oil spot market. They are doing their best to keep prices high to hurt Trump.
This nonsense with Iran is exactly why the United States, the EU and Saudi Arabia need to build two additional 7 million bpd oil pipelines to Yanbu and the Mediterranean. Without the power over the Straits of Hormuz none of this crap would be going on!
Prior to this war, Iran had nothing to do with affecting oil shipments thru the strait. After all, the gulf is international waters. They were shipping their oil and the Arab countries were shipping theirs. What they are doing now is trying to extend the war as a way to pressure the US to go home. London bankers and Lloyds of London have been creating strife in the region as a way to increase insurance rates to shippers and skimming trillions of $ to enrich themselves. Hundreds of years of this. We will end this
This is one of the things the President is ending. The control of prices done by the two entities you mention. They have been doing this for over a hundred years. London bankers and Lloyds.
I’m from Ca, and I remember when oil became an issue. The oil spill of Santa Barbara 1969. It was dirty and the public shouted “not ever again” Ca. has huge reserves (Bakersfield to the Channel Islands), there are also incredible beach’s, and I for one will pay a little for the beauty of the coast.
Big Oil (Getty/ Newsom) and dirty politics go hand in Ca.
If the oil industry cleans up it’s act then everyone benefits; but why should they? Newsom has that covered
Oil is all natural, not dirty
Funny in that nature doesn’t seem to have a that big of a problem with naturally occuring petroleum seeps where there are microbes that can efficiently metabolize much of it.
Which reminds me. I would have to locate some white paper or other where there was research suggesting that those same microbes have adapted to eating some of the polymers made from petroleum, ie plastics.
Patriot Burns —
An enormous amount of information to come yet…stay “turned!”
is that you, Kash??
I didn’t say oil is dirty…
The industry’s dirty.
The spill in Santa Barbara (1969) was from a broken pipe that was well past its use.
Big difference
Price is set by that of the last barrel of demand. That is why a small shortage can cause a large price rise.
“Wake up and smell the roses”…
The price is set by the big oil companies who have been gouging us pricewise for most of my lifetime…
There are more PROVEN oil reserves under the CONUS than there is in the entire middle east…
Raising the price of oil in the USA because Hormuz is blocked is ridiculous at best…
The price of oil is the same everywhere in the world regardless of where it was extracted. Oil is a commodity just like precious metals such as Gold and Silver. Oil companies in the US cannot set the price of crude.
Trump knows this, you can bet he has a plan to address this before the mid-terms.
Could he be thinking along the lines of Alaska’s Permanent Fund for citizens??
You know, US oil/gas, US dollars, US citizen’s get a share of the revenues?? And the oil industry can; Drill baby, drill! $3.56/gal in Alaska today and checks come once a year, on time, and well received; every year the pumps are flowing along with the cash.
Interesting idea.
And that was Governor Sarah Palin’s doing! The oil boys up there hated her for it, too!
I believe Norway has monetized their offshore oil production also to help provide for their citizens. I believe President Trump has a plan to monetize all US precious metals based on what experts have said the value in US is.
Why is our Navy keeping Hormuz open?
President Trump should bring our Navy home and let those nations that depend on oil from countries above the Strait of Hormuz send their navies to keep it open…
Because it is not about the oil, it is about ending a 47 year forever war and removing a node of power used by the globalists to control us, just like Venezuela, our open border, narco terrorists, China, NATO, Canada, Mexico, free trade, the FED, fake elections, etc. etc.
They are all connected and Trump is systematically removing those controls to refocus America’s power on America, instead of it being used for our own destruction..
Oil price is set via futures contracts on benchmark crudes, mostly (80%) via via Brent (Brent futures are traded on the Intercontinental Exchange ICE. in London) or WTI (West Texas Intermediate futures are primarily traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange -NYMEX), rather than a simple spot price at the wellhead.
Ref. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/crude-oil-pricing-how-actually-works-part-1-futures-market-mourgues-hlwuc
The world, quite stupidly, has moved off of petroleum as an energy source. This sets us up for the future and AI energy needs.
What world are you living on? And in what way would it set us up for the future of anything. What are you talking about???
WoW!!! Thanks, SD!
So….”they are paying people at negative prices to take gas off their hands”. And cost of natural gas to the consumer 30%+this past year. Tying commodity prices to financial market speculators has never served the main street economy well. The Fed’s serving Wall Street is complicit.
Time for energy independence to pay its dividends to Main Street Americans. We see it at the pump 1st, but it impacts food and groceries, everything else.
When do we start paying down the debt? Billions being sold in oil and gas tax revenues and fraud exposure in the billions being identified and prosecuted.
Let us pray this “Golden Age” opportunity is not squandered away. PDJT and We The People cannot work fast enough to protect our national interest.
Pay down the debt?
You don’t understand.
The goal is to overspend and accelerate the growth of the US sovereign debt.
This is one of the managed decline mechanisms.
Thank goodness it has passed the point where the feedback loop from interest has started, here’s where things will get even more cool. Exponential growth.
Now even if the federal budget were massively cut, the debt will continue to grow because of interest.
But even better, Congress and Trump are aligned on increasing the budget and deficits too. Win-win! 🙂
Not being a math geek, I don’t understand at all. Could you make that simple enough for a seven-year old please?
Roughly 30 to 34 percent of global fertilizer exports and 50 percent of global sulfur trade were dependent on this maritime chokepoint before the [Persian Gulf} blockade began in February 2026.
https://citizenwatchreport.com/the-strait-of-hormuz-closure-is-forcing-a-permanent-global-agricultural-yield-collapse/
Pay Down the Debt??? ROFLMAO
40 Trillion very soon!!!
Never going to even stop Growing Bigger until the SHTF.
The SHTF ain’t gonna happen unless and until we grow a set of balls, General…
We cannot pay the interest on the debt without borrowing. The debt itself is growing higher.
What does it look like without all the withdrawals from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
A choke point for the price of refined product is the lack of refining capacity here in the USA
We can meet our own need of about 17 million barrels a day, refined….
Brave AI:
“The United States requires approximately 16.5 to 17 million barrels per day of crude oil processing to maintain current domestic production levels and meet consumption demands.”
BP’s Whiting Refinery can process up 440,000 barrels of oil a day. So …that’s one refinery in the mid west.
And…Brave AI:
As of 2025, the United States has 132 operable petroleum refineries, with 131 actively operating and 1 idle.
I re-posted the video I had in O/T below.
video below
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/05/28/context-for-u-s-oil-production/#comment-12606507
It would be nice if we could refine our own oil but we can no longer do that as FRACKED oil is light sweet crude.
Our current refinery’s were built long ago & designed for the “sludge” oil that was pooling near the surface of the earth.
Due to LAWfare, we have not built a refinery since 1977 in Louisiana, so we sell our fracked oil for more $$$ & import the “sludge” oil as that is what our refinery’s were built for.
We need new or updates to USA refinery’s to accept fracked oil but with lawfare… it is just cheaper to import than Lawfare.
Cute.
Brownsville is building one for light crude,and should start going online next year.
Exactly.
You can thank Newscum for that. He has shut down the huge Valero refinery in Benecia, & a couple in S. CA. It has RUINED refinery capacity in the US.
He should be hanged, drawn, & quartered for what he did.
President Trump can use this new lead in world oil/gas production to America’s great advantage.
Remember, while Senator Ted “Splash” Kennedy was publicly calling for the Federal Nationalization of US O/G production (that thankfully failed) President Reagan set the stage for the fall of his Evil Empire (USSR) by getting the OPEC’s Minister, Zaki Yamani to drop the price per barrel of oil from appx. $ 37 to $ 7 bll.
Having already pushed Brezhnev/USSR into a very expensive missile Arms race that consumed their capital, the $ 7/bbl of oil put a Hugh drop in the USSR’s primary revenue source, O/G sales.
Viola, their pending bankruptcy lead Gorbachev into perestroika and his glasnost policy reform to deal with his new economic reality in the USSR after Brezhnev passed. Reagan helped him out through the process of change.
And that lead to the economic constraints in the USSR that eventually led to it’s collapse without a kinetic shot or missile being fired by Reagan,… cuz the population just eventually refused to continue to go along with a Commie Command/Control economy that no longer worked for them,… too many blocks long bread/grocery lines and empty shelves, among other political factors.
So, Yes,… this leadership in world O/G production can give Trump tremendous opportunities to effect world politics, economies, trade and hopefully, a more peaceful and productive world.
This opportunity with well timed and adroit application can lead to Donald Trump to becoming the most important and accomplished President in USA history.
Keep Spuding in and,…. Drill, Baby, Drill in the USA!
( I write this now cuz I worked with my clients, Dresser, Ind. (now Halliburton) and Hughes Tool (Baker Hughes) among other O/G major players in Houston, TX in the early to late 1980s.
However,…Regan’s move to drop the price back then also had the side effect of bankrupting many in Texas and Louisiana. 3D tech and then Fracking (first applied by B. J. Titan in about 1947) finally brought the US O/G Industry back to profits and the success that we are experiencing and enjoying now.
Oh, when the Straights of Hormuz are soon opened and hundreds of oil tankers leave to create an immediate big O/G supply on the world market that will drive down prices quickly,… domestic US gas/diesel prices will fall fast and to new lows than before Epic Fury,… IMHO).
Reagan.
Love Viola…but, “Voila!” (forgive me).
Anyway, I understand a barrel of oil is approximately 44.7 imperial gallons, and is refined to 4 diffrent products, among them what we call diesel and gasoline. Perhaps the refineries could boost the production of diesel from each gallon to increase current supply and get diesel down to $5.00 or less for our farmers and truckers…seems an advantage there for lowering costa at the groceries.
Thank you DaP! What a marvelous history lesson. I slept thru that chapter! 🙂
The Oil Boom in Houston in the early 80’s was quite a Chapter,… with appx 2,000 people a week moving to HOTX, many from the Mid West rust belt to find work in that expanding economy,…. the one President Reagan halted to crush the Evil Empire. His work caused the greatest migration of white collar employees after the boom went Bust from Houston and the TX oil economy in US history. But when it was Booming, it was Great Times.
The world’s entire industrial foundation now relies on Oil/Gas/Coal and Nuclear, regardless of what the Eco-Freaks/Socialists/Marxists think or grumble about. I’d rather be with the Haves than the Have Nots.
His focus was the destruction of communism, every decision revolved around that objective. That was the reason they tried to assassinate him, the US against the Soviet Union had been the globalists primary source of power and control for three decades, as they had both sides under their thumbs, like usual.
I witnessed his speech on the DMZ in Korea and had a first hand demonstration in the truth of peace through superior firepower, like Trump he was the real deal.
I recall Sen Ted Kennedy meeting with Brezhnev in Moscow in about ’83 behind President Reagan’s back, trying to sabotage Reagan’s agenda.
The Party of Fraud, Inc.,… the Dims, haven’t changed at all since ’83,…. just gotten worse.
That good ol Kennedy character coming out.
Add to the US extra production, including Venezuela, with UAE and Saudi Arabia bypassing the Straight of Hormuz with pipelines and we are only 5 million bpd below pre war volume. (Out of the world consumption of 100 million bpd, 20 of which was out of Hormuz
Too bad we can’t refine our own oil and give the middle finger to the rest of the world. How our domestic oil companies continue to insist that it makes more sense to export our sweet crude and import sour crude, I’ll never understand it. Unfortunately, our refining capability is mostly for sour.
You’d think we would work on building refining capability for domestic oil, but there has been near zero progress in that area. Maddening.
Enviro nuts wouldn’t allow new U.S. refineries using lawfare and intimidation.
Perhaps President Trump can declare a strategic necessity to build new refineries…..
Using that logic we should get some pipelines built to ship some of that lovely Marcellus natural gas up to the Northeast where we can get relief from some of the highest electric rates in the nation and otherwise quite high energy prices.
America First Refinery going in at Brownsville, Tx. Yes, close to Elon’s Space City. Importantly, it will handle light crude. The other refineries in Texas in the Houston to Port Arthur stretch are built to only handle heavy crude like what we get from Venezuala, Mexico, and Canada. So a refinery that handles “sweet” oil is desperately needed.
By the way, if you’ve never seen a part of the country being heavily fracked, the amount of natural gas that gets burned off as a by-product still makes me wonder why we aren’t capturing that as well…
Not really cost effective to capture the sheer quantities of natural gas from fracking without existing pipeline capacities with which to carry it to the markets which would buy it.
Cheaper to flare it off in the vicinity of the wellheads as the producers would pretty much have to pay someone to get rid of it otherwise.
Some blamed the the Refiners for wanting to escape USA Union wage rate demands for cheaper foreign labor in South America, etc., but it was the continuing Enviro regs and mandates from the Feds that mainly caused the problem for the O/G Industry.
You mean the CCP-backed enviro-nuts?
Check out Brownsville, Texas. A refinery has recently been approved for construction, and is “fixin” to go online early next year.
‘ to go online next year, dedicated to refining light”sweet” crude oil.
Re: building refining capacity in the U.S., article 2026
In Brownsville Tx.
A core part of the project is its design and engineering. The new refinery design will exclusively process American light shale oil, which company officials said is cleaner, more efficient, and costs less to process than heavier imported crude.
The new AFR refinery aims to address the imbalance by redirecting up to 60 million barrels of U.S. crude back into domestic refining each year.
Under the deal, the planned Brownsville facility will:
By localizing this entire process, AFR expects the project to improve the U.S. trade imbalance by $300 billion.
https://news.constructconnect.com/america-first-refining-announces-construction-of-the-first-new-us-oil-refinery-in-50-years
That’s fantastic news, President Trump doesn’t go into a fight without having his ducks in a row. If you’re going to stop eating at a restaurant you better know how to cook your own food…lol
I we are the world’s top producer of oil, and we don’t rely on the Middle East for said oil, why are we paying $4.50 a gallon for oil domestically? Please make it make sense.
See my post above. We don’t have significant refining capability for our (superior) sweet crude. So we export our oil and import (inferior) sour crude, since that’s where are refining capability lies. It’s ridiculous and maddening that absolutely nothing has been done to develop domestic refining capability.
Didn’t newscum shut down two refineries?
Refinery closures present risk for higher gasoline prices on the West Coast – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) https://share.google/TwSKrs3LzVpm9DMqz
I just got a promotion and raise…almost entirely eaten by the ever increasing cost of living. Infuriating doesn’t quite cover it.
So you’ve been infuriated since you were born? The cost of living has really never gone down. One of the big factors is taxes. Here in my MN city when you add up state county and local sales taxes, anything I buy here or have delivered is just about 10%. I go elsewhere when ever I can but for deliveries it’s a little tough.
I bought a small boat this year and by driving 1 1/2 hours I saved about $800 in sales tax. Well worth the drive.
It is a temporary market factor.
View my linked video posted below, then it will make sense.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/05/28/context-for-u-s-oil-production/#comment-12606507
See the posts above.
Still paying over 4.oo gallon in Alabama, little Less in Georgia as state gas tax is suspended.
Groceries are unbearable for many, only the EBT and Upper incomes are buying steak. Even chicken is expensive. What’s next? Shooting rabbit & squirrel?
Trump has No Idea of life outside of his $$$ bubble, neither do democRat politicians aka Bolsheviks.
A broken record. Other trolls are using that same copy and paste comment.
The choke point for oil isn’t the Straight of Hormuz, it’s the Earth worshippers screaming about climate change, a.k.a. global warming. Nothing but a scam by communists/socialist/progressives to help destroy the Western world’s economy.
And they scream while wearing all synthetic clothing, made from OIL!
That’s great but when does price of gas come down?
I want to be happy about this as if it means something but the cost of living is ridiculous. Who cares if we produce the most if we’re paying out our rear ends just to drive to work?
It has already dropped 25 cents in SW MO
Were you crying in June of 2022 when the nationwide average price of gasoline (all grades and blends) was $5.03 per gallon during the aftermath of Covid – mania, the Inflation Reduction Act, Build Back Better/Green New Deal implemented by the Delaware Dimwit’s (mal) administration?
Repost of something I put in O/T a few days ago as it relates to SD’s video above about still importing oils & exporting oil to different locations & why it is done as it is, mostly because of lawfare & GVT. (big shocker I know)
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/05/26/tuesday-may-26th-open-thread-2/#comment-12601683
This is an interesting video explanation as to why the oil in the USA is not generally refined here.
We could refine it here IF the greenies would allow changes/additions to existing refinery’s or build some new ones, but that is unlikely to happen without lawfare that probably more than doubles the cost of doing so leaving us to import the oil that our refinery’s were built to process because it is cheaper.
Last built refinery…. 1977 in LA (no not Los Angeles/s)
This link was pointed to within the article that
cjshecky posted article:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/05/24/sunday-talks-defeated-thomas-massie-promises-to-keep-shouting-at-trees-until-maga-is-defeated/comment-page-2/#comment-12600847
The CEO of ExxonMobil says that oil inventories are getting dangerously low. The next few weeks will be telling.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/28/oil-inventory-exxon-strait-hormuz-iran-war.html
I have been reading that motor oil stocks on store shelves are going down. Walmart has a lot of empty shelves especially for certain grades.
Just something to be aware of
I pray and believe that Trump/Bessent are going after the Brits for controlling distribution(Lloyds of London) setting the price of Brent Crude(in the City of England, of course) rather than letting world supply set the price. Thankfully the WTI actually reflects US supply price.
The Brits… All they do is go in and rape countries for their benefit as they actually don’t produce anything of value. I want to see their racketeering operations against the United States stopped! It has been going on since 1688 AD for g-dsakes.
President Trump is our greatest president since Washington. He is transforming global geopolitics in a way that we have never seen before.
The Never Trumpers and the Eeyores and the UniParty swamp can bellyache all they want. Their crocodile tears do not impress me.
With God’s glorious blessings, President Trump is giving my descendants a chance to live in a better world than I grew up in.
I will not throw a hissy fit about gas prices or mean tweets or anything else the doomscrollers are griping about.
I will give Almighty God thanks for giving us a leader like President Trump “for just such a time as this.” We are so blessed by our Heavenly Father!
AMEN! A little short-term pain for A LOT OF Long Term Gain! 🙂
MAGA
Seems to me that he makes a fundamental mistake in equating “gas” to gasoline at the end. Gas in this context is natural gas, not a refined product.
The late, great wildcatter George Mitchell and his staff were the main movers in starting the fraking revolution.
Horizontal wellbores that have much more contact with the oil-bearing rock.
Combination for success.
What nobody talks about is how America can make decisions about the world, without what used to be the question whenever the US acted. “How is this going to affect oil prices and our economy?
No longer are we basing foreign policy on oil supply for us. Doesn’t that give us a whole new perspective on the world and free us to make decisions without the oil slick of concern?
With all this good analysis, and cheaper crude oil being domestically produced, can anyone tell me why the “price at the pump” continues to rise?
R F Burns, may have explained the tax issue for the rise in cost, but that still does not explain the counterintuitive problem of more supply yet rising price?
For those that haven’t been to the Midland area of Texas, those pumps are huge compared to what you see in the Ohio valley in places like southern IL. You can smell the oil in a lot of places when you drive through that area.
And my gas in Pittsburgh, pa is still $4.89 a gallon because? Anyone?
Great! Now start building more refineries.
We in the Dumocrat Northeast need a National Security directive requiring the Dumocrats to stop blocking gas pipeline construction. Here in MA they import LNG from God knows where, and our prices have skyrocketed. Didn’t President Trump promise new pipelines during his 2024 campaign? Where are they?