In the late 1920s, as the oil supply exceeded the demand more and more, a large amount of oil surplus was produced. Then came the biggest economic recession in American history, and the oil market suffered an unprecedented disaster. Within a few months, the price of crude oil dropped from 1 USD per barrel to below1USD, and the development of American oil industry was gradually in trouble. In order to get rid of the predicament, the US government imposed regulatory restrictions on oil production. Before the discovery of East Dezhou Oilfield, Oklahoma had already implemented the practice of production allocation, and Texas was also following up on 193 1. The so-called production distribution actually requires each oil production company to reduce production in order to achieve a balance between supply and demand [4 1].
At first, oil companies opposed the implementation of such rationing, but due to the repeated decline in crude oil prices at that time, oil companies suffered serious economic losses. By 1934, most states and oil companies have adopted this policy, and oil prices have gradually stabilized, which also enables the government to participate in and strengthen the control and management of the oil industry. Congress also passed the Oil Act, according to which the states set the allowable range of output changes and prohibited any overproduced crude oil from being shipped out of the United States. Later, when imported crude oil began to pose a threat to the US oil industry and endangered the implementation of the US oil production restriction policy, the US government announced import control [42].
Since multinational companies have always controlled the pricing power of oil and the control power of crude oil production, when the Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1973, the problems between multinational oil companies and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries became increasingly politicized. Arab oil-producing countries imposed an oil embargo on the United States. At the same time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries took advantage of this opportunity to raise the oil price from $ 2-3 per barrel to $ 13 at the beginning of 0974, the mining fee from 1/8 of the output to 1/6, and the income tax to 65%. The actions taken by oil exporting countries have brought energy crisis to the United States and other market economy countries. From 1973 to 1974, the United States felt that the impact of the oil embargo of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was particularly serious. At that time, 35% of the oil needed by the United States was imported, so the US government imposed price control on domestic oil production, and implemented low-priced "old oil" (197 1+ 1 crude oil produced by previously developed oil fields) and "new oil" (197 1).
Due to the serious threat brought by the oil crisis to the United States and the important position of oil in American energy, the federal government has implemented a series of plans and incentive policies for oil [40, 47 ~ 50]:
(1) Pay attention to the basic research and applied research of petroleum technology, and ensure the safe supply of domestic oil at a reasonable price. Actively promote cooperative research among enterprises, universities and local governments. The American oil industry invests hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D and technological improvement every year, and almost all of these funds come from the company itself, not the federal government.
(2) Establish a strategic petroleum reserve system to ensure national energy security. From 65438 to 0975, the US Congress passed the Energy Policy and Energy Conservation Act, which authorized the Department of Energy to establish and manage the strategic oil reserve system, and defined the objectives, management and operation mechanism of the strategic oil reserve. American petroleum reserve system is divided into government strategic reserve and enterprise commercial reserve. The purpose of the government's strategic oil reserve is to prevent the oil embargo and the interruption of oil supply. It is not easy to use at ordinary times. When the supply of commercial oil is interrupted, the emergency reserve oil can be quickly delivered to the refinery within 15 days ordered by the president of the United States. The operating mechanism of American strategic oil reserve can be summarized as follows: ① government ownership and decision-making power; ② Market-oriented operation. From the construction of oil depots, the purchase of oil to the daily operation and management costs are paid by the federal finance. The federal finance has a special oil reserve fund budget and account, and the number of funds is approved by Congress.
In order to avoid the impact on the market price, the procurement and delivery of strategic oil basically adopt the market bidding mechanism. Usually choose to buy at a low price to avoid market price fluctuations and loss of oil reserve funds. Strategic oil reserves have also been included in the bidding mechanism. The government invites oil companies to bid, and then the oil companies sell them at market prices. The recovered funds shall be paid into the special account of the Oil Reserve Fund of the Ministry of Finance to supplement the oil reserves. Corporate commercial reserves far exceed government reserves. In 2004, US oil reserves were equivalent to 150 days of imports, of which government reserves were 53 days of imports, accounting for only 1/3, and the rest were enterprise reserves. The oil reserves of American enterprises are completely market behavior. The law does not stipulate that enterprises have the obligation to reserve oil, and the government does not interfere with the reserve and release activities of enterprises. Enterprises decide their own oil reserves and timing according to market supply and demand and strength.
(3) Encourage enterprises to carry out R&D activities through preferential tax policies, and guide enterprises to achieve national energy-saving goals. Through the policy practice in recent years, the federal and state tax policies are considered to effectively encourage the private sector to achieve energy policy objectives, such as tax relief for R&D and investment, and reduction of mining royalties. But generally speaking, due to the huge differences in oil and gas operations and economic conditions among States, most tax incentives are implemented by state governments.
(4) Government agencies cooperate in division of labor, and support domestic energy enterprises to participate in international competition through subsidies, technical assistance and financing, so as to obtain and utilize international resources. The U.S. Department of Energy, Trade Development Agency and Export-Import Bank are the three main institutions that support energy enterprises to participate in global competition. The office of mineral energy international plan and oil and gas import and export under the office of mineral energy of the Ministry of Energy undertakes the responsibility of supporting the development of new business opportunities and technologies in the American oil and gas industry; The United States Trade and Development Agency helps domestic oil and gas companies compete in energy projects in developing and middle-income countries by funding feasibility studies, professional training, business seminars and other technical assistance. As a supplement to government agencies, the Export-Import Bank of the United States provides financing support for overseas sales activities of American companies; The Export-Import Bank also provides credit guarantees to protect American exporters from the risk of being unable to pay due to foreign political or commercial reasons.
From June 65438 to 1 June 9791,the United States relaxed its price control. In view of the excess profits made by oil producers and operators during the period of high oil prices, a "windfall tax" was imposed on domestic crude oil from February 2, 1980. 198 1 year, the us government terminated the crude oil price control. By 1984, compared with the peak of crude oil import at the time of price control, the import volume decreased by about 50%. The decline of American crude oil imports and the emergence of new global crude oil suppliers have led to the decline of world crude oil prices. From 1985, 1 1 to 1986, the world crude oil price dropped from $32 to 10.
During the Gulf War from 65438 to 0990, former President Bush put forward a new energy strategy to reduce the impact of rising oil prices on the economy. Although great changes have taken place in the economic structure of the United States in recent years, and high technology has become the leading factor of economic growth, the United States still regards energy as an important factor to ensure national security. 1999, advocates improving energy efficiency, finding alternative energy sources and ensuring foreign oil sources, and emphasizes maintaining the stability and security of important oil-producing areas to ensure the opportunity to obtain resources.
200 1 American national energy policy report points out the strategic measures to solve the "energy crisis", in which the domestic policies for developing oil and gas resources mainly include the following points [5 1 ~ 53]:
(1) Strengthen the development of domestic oil and gas resources and increase domestic production. According to the current development status of oil and natural gas resources in the United States, Alaska's oil reserves have become the primary area for the Bush administration to increase domestic oil and gas supply. In addition to the North Slope oil field, there are three areas in Alaska where oil and gas can be exploited, namely, Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, Arctic Remote Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The federal government regards the development of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as the focus of increasing domestic oil and gas production in the United States. In addition to Alaska, we should also strengthen the development of oil and gas resources in the western United States. The federal government owns 365,438+0% of the land (mostly in the western United States) and the entire continental shelf of 48 States on the mainland. At present, the energy provided by these areas accounts for 30% of the country's total energy output. There are about 560 million tons of underground crude oil and 4.68 trillion cubic meters of natural gas to be developed in these areas. However, these areas have complex geological structures and high exploration and development costs, so they must be mined by modern high-tech means. On the other hand, accelerate the application of new technologies in oil and gas development, improve the exploitation efficiency of old oil and gas fields, reduce the exploitation cost, and try our best to improve the production level of old oil and gas fields.
(2) Improve oil and gas transportation facilities and build new pipelines. With a total length of more than 3.2 million kilometers, American oil and gas pipelines are the main means of transportation of American oil and gas products, and undertake 66% of domestic oil and gas products transportation tasks. However, due to the long service time, these pipelines have been seriously aging, which greatly reduces the transportation efficiency, not only increases the degree of energy shortage, but also increases the possibility of environmental pollution. Therefore, the federal government requires the Ministry of Communications, which is responsible for the safety of oil and gas pipelines, to further strengthen the monitoring of pipeline design, construction, maintenance and emergency treatment. The federal government pays special attention to the trans-Alaska pipeline, because this pipeline has undertaken nearly 20% of the transportation of domestic petroleum products in the United States since its opening, and the transportation efficiency is extremely high. In its entire operation history, the loss only accounts for 0.000 14% of its total transportation volume.
(3) Repair and expansion of oil refining facilities. Since the 1990s, the efficiency of American oil refining facilities has been decreasing, and the environmental pollution has become more and more serious, which not only restricts the ability of the oil refining industry to meet the demand of American economy for related petroleum products, but also is increasingly opposed by environmentalists. Therefore, the federal government decided to encourage the construction of new oil refining facilities on the basis of improving the original facilities to meet the dual needs of economy and environmental protection.
(4) Increase the national strategic oil reserve. Strategic petroleum reserve is the main tool for the US federal government to intervene in the oil market when there is an emergency in oil supply. The government believes that since the 1990s, the strategic oil reserves of the United States have never kept up with the pace of oil imports. 1992 reserves can maintain the import volume for 83 days, while in 2006, it only maintained the level of 54 days in 5438+0. Therefore, the government's decision to increase the strategic oil reserve is of great significance not only in maintaining American oil security, but also in oil or defense fuel reserves.