The United States is currently producing approximately 13.7 million barrels of crude oil per day — a record high, and more than any other nation on the planet. By any intuitive measure, Americans should be paying less for gasoline than almost anyone else on earth.

They are not.

In early 2026, West Texas Intermediate crude prices rose sharply amid Middle East tensions, with Brent crude briefly touching $117 per barrel following disruptions to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. American consumers felt it immediately at the pump — not because American oil became scarce, but because American oil is priced on a global market that does not care where the barrel was drilled.

Oil is a globally traded commodity, priced in U.S. dollars on international exchanges. When a barrel of West Texas crude is pulled from the ground in Midland, Texas, it is immediately subject to global benchmark pricing. These prices move together, responding to supply disruptions in Nigeria, sanctions on Iran, production decisions made in Riyadh, and tanker traffic through chokepoints that most Americans could not locate on a map.

American oil companies are not charities. They sell their product to whoever pays the most. When global prices rise, American producers sell their crude on international markets at those elevated prices. Every time. This is not a conspiracy. It is capitalism operating exactly as designed.

But Isn't It Our Oil? In the United States, oil ownership depends entirely on who owns the land it sits beneath. On private land, mineral rights belong to the landowner. On federal land, the government leases extraction rights to private companies. Either way, once the oil is extracted it belongs to the company — to sell wherever the price is best.

Compare this to Norway. When Norway discovered North Sea oil, the government made a deliberate decision: the resources beneath Norwegian territory would benefit Norwegian citizens collectively. It created a majority state-owned energy company and established a sovereign wealth fund — now worth over a trillion dollars — that distributes oil revenues to fund public services. Norwegian citizens effectively own their oil. American citizens do not.

What would actually change prices? Genuine energy independence would require not just more production but a fundamentally different market structure: price controls, export limitations, nationalized refining, or some combination. Each carries significant economic and political costs that no administration has been willing to absorb.

The oil is American. The market is not. Until that changes, a conflict in the Persian Gulf will continue to cost you money at a pump in Peoria. The next time a politician tells you that more drilling will lower your gas prices, you now have the context to ask the follow-up question: lower for whom?