Oil companies have 9000 leases that arent developed, and arent on government land. The stock holders dont want to spend money to develop them because it cuts into profits. The Keystone pipeline wasnt even finished, and the oil from that was going overseas. Not one drop was going to be used in the USA. And the native Americans didnt want that dirty shit on the land to fuck up the water when it breaks. And it will eventually break.
The Keystone pipeline has nothing to do with rising gas prices. Gas, and oil is up worldwide as is inflation. OPEC cut production, causing a worldwide rise in prices.
Exports of Natural gas were at a record for 2021, and is expected to break that record in 2022. Were producing more LNG than we ever have.
How high will US LNG exports go in 2022?
The agency's forecast U.S. liquefied natural gas exports would reach 11.54 bcfd in 2022 and 12.13 bcfd in 2023, up from a record 9.78 bcfd in 2021. That is similar to its December forecast of 11.49 bcfd in 2022.
Oil and gas companies do not want to drill more," said
Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James. "They are under pressure from the financial community to pay more dividends, to do more share buybacks instead of the proverbial 'drill baby drill,' which is the way they would have done things 10 years ago.
Why isn’t Big Oil drilling more as gas prices surge? The answer is more Wall Street than White House
- The latest consumer inflation reading, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, hits its highest level since 1982 in November, with a 34% spike in energy prices among the key drivers.
- Oil company capital spending has been dropping since the mid-2010s, making it hard to ramp up new production quickly as economy rebounds.
- Wall Street has pressed oil and gas producers to cut capex, and shift their cash to financial goals like paying down debt and boosting dividends, as well as de-carbonization, after investment in fracking led to billions in negative cash flow.
- About half of last year’s lost production has returned, but prices will stay high until domestic producers pump more, or OPEC nations make a change in their production quotas.
The root cause of today’s high gas prices isn’t politics: It’s financial pressure on oil companies from a decade of cash-flow losses that have made them change financial tactics. Investment in new wells has dropped more than 60%, causing U.S. crude oil production to plummet by more than 3 million barrels a day, or nearly 25%, just as the Covid virus hit, and then fail to recover with the economy. For an oil-drilling sector that lost 90% of its stock value from 2012 through early last year, it hasn’t been the toughest call in the world.
Oil company chief executives and finance chiefs have faced years of rising demand from markets for more disciplined capital spending after a spree of development centered in West Texas and North Dakota produced an
estimated $10.9 billion in negative free cash flow in 2014 alone — roughly speaking, operating profit minus capital spending. That persistent cash drain made
blue-chip oil exploration stocks drop 90% from their peak and spurred demands that companies eschew fast growth in favor of steadier profits and stock-boosting finance moves like higher dividends, more share buybacks and reduced debt.
“For really the decade that ended in 2019 or 2020, there was an energy revolution and what did the energy sector get? They were the worst performers in the S&P 500,″ said Rob Thummel, portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital in Overland Park, Kansas.
A Dec. 6 report by progressive advocacy group Accountable.US says
16 of 24 large U.S. energy companies have raised their dividends this year (through third-quarter earnings reports), while 11 made special dividend payouts totaling more than $36.5 billion of what the group says were $174 billion in industrywide profits. Indeed, one new financial trick popular with energy companies is a
“variable dividend” that allows high payments in good times and a small base payout when profits are lower, Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally said.
The group only found $8 billion in share buybacks, but
Exxon Mobil and
Chevron alone pledged to buy back as much as $20 billion of stock in the next two years when they disclosed third-quarter earnings. Chevron’s annual dividend is now 4.7% of the company’s value, more than triple the average of 1.3% paid by members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
“Strong operating cash flow enabled us to deliver on our financial priorities, including the resumption of share repurchases,” Chevron CFO Pierre Breber said on the company’s earnings call. “Cost efficiency and capital efficiency are essential to navigate commodity price cycles.”
“The equity holders said, ‘you’ve got to give me cash,’” according to McNally. “Now the companies are being run to generate free cash more than growth