Honestly, I guess I couldn't have said it better myself. That's what it comes down to - Capitalism.

#2 | Posted by oneironaut

So what made it surge so high? It certainly wasn't regulations. Nothing of any significance has changed in that area in years. I don't know where you are guzzling those ideas from but just one example - the formulations quagmire has been around for 30 years.

Let me 'splain SOME of it to you.

So Oil Companies WANT to drive the price of oil and gas higher:
1. It helps them profiteering at times of crisis - like now.
2. It helps them get their political allies in power which in theory will lead to more extended times of profiteering.
3. They know the end is nigh for combustion engines and are seeking to reap massive profits while they can. The fact that COVID and the war in Ukraine is actually, perhaps ironically, leading to a quicker end to combustion engines.
4. Oil companies aren't expanding refining and instead cutting it - again tied to their perceived end of combustion engines.
5. Oil companies are not drilling on their leases. In fact they aren't drilling in general and haven't been even prior to COVID. There are various reasons. One of the biggest is that nasty thing on the perceived end of combustion engines and their desire for constraints on production.
6. In another way, there isn't a problem with leases, Big Oil isn't and hasn't been developing them. Better to buy the lease and sit on it so the little guys can't go in and develop them. Biden offered new leases - the catch is you have to develop them.

Russia is selling it's oil. So why hasn't the war spike come down?
Gas skyrocketed in comparison to Oil - why?