Reply #71: Foolish for a number of reasons

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First, if you really want people to seriously consider the production of things like biodiesel and other alternative sources of energy, you need to offer the chance of profits. Government capping of profits in an industry is an easy way to kill investment.

Second, American oil companies are bench-warmers when compared to the real players in the oil industry. Cappint profits would have little effect.

Take a look at this list of oil producers:


Rank by 2002 Oil Equivalent Reserves Billion Cubic Feet Total Reserves in Oil Equivalent Barrels, Million Barrels

1 Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Arabia) 298,819
2 National Iranian Oil Company (Iran) 228,555
3 Gazprom (Russia) 203,419
4 Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (Qatar) 172,231
5 Iraq National Oil Company (Iraq) 131,269
6 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (UAE)125,721
7 Petroleos de Venezuela.S.A. (Venezuela) 102,537
8 Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (Kuwait) 96,509
9 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (Nigeria) 45,197
10 National Oil Company (Libya) 37,432
11 Sonatrach (Algeria) 36,499
12 Petroleos Mexicanos (Mexico) 30,237
13 ExxonMobil Corporation (United States) 21,347

ExxonMobil, the biggest American oil company is small potatoes compared to the top 12 state-owned oil producers. Saudi Arabian Oil Company BY ITSELF control about 10 times as much oil as ExxonMobile.

In terms of production, ExxonMobil actually looks better. They appear to be able to produce oil more efficiently than many state run oil companies. But it still amounts to about 2% of world oil production.