Originally Posted by mulp

In the 40s Texas and Oklahoma, about the size of Indonesia, exported oil to the world, but then in the 50s production increases stalled and then started falling.

Is there a pattern here?

A nation exports oil for a while, then the production stops climbing, then internal demand consumes all and then more of everything produced, and then exports end.

In the 70s the US embarked on a big program of drilling to become energy independent, then Reagan was elected and the US started importing more and more and more.

Reagan set the standard which is to deplete the US oil fields, become more dependent on foreign oil, and become twice as dependent on imports, threatening national security.

And the environmentalists didn't force Exxon and Chevron and Shell and other US oil companies shutdown production, exploration, and expansion of oil on the Federal land that had been directed by Congress to be made available for exploration in the 70s and very early 80s.

And Reagan and then Bush did nothing to lease out those areas, so it took the Clinton administration to put in place a plan for leasing out oil fields in Alaska. But the Bush adminstration stalled on putting the leases out for bid. And the oil companies haven't been that aggressive about exploring and bring them into production.