Very good point. People need to understand that oil is fungible and when theres not enough of it, everyone who buys it will pay that premium.
And actually its not just oil. To some degree, all energy is fungible. If we had more drilling and more nuclear and more coal and nat gas, ALL OF IT would be much less expensive because many fuel usages can use multiple sources (like elec utilities for instance).
Since we don't have a Nationalized oil industry in this county, the oil belongs to the oil companies foreign and domestic who are drilling here in the United states.
You and I don't own the oil and neither does the US Govt.
So if the oil companies, can get a higher price outside this country, oil pumped in the United States could be shipped elsewhere. - Tom