The increase in US oil production and the resulting price drop has been the result of new discoveries and technology breakthroughs related to shale and fracking, not due to any overt intention by the US government. To suggest otherwise is to imply that US oil companies were deliberately holding back on potential profits by not pumping at full production prior to 2011, which in my opinion is harder to believe (Occam?) than the coincidence of the production increase's effects on US foreign interests.
To suggest otherwise is to imply that US oil companies were deliberately holding back on potential profits by not pumping at full production prior to 2011
Most wells don't run at full capacity, and absolutely alter draw speeds to maximize the life and economics of a well. With the drop in prices many large energy companies with the ability to weather these drops in price will of course turn down the taps, reserving the limited holds of their wells for when the price returns. If you have n barrels of oil in your well, and you're certain the price will return to North of $100, might as well save them for then.
new discoveries and technology breakthroughs related to shale and fracking
Fracking is natural gas. On the shale side, it's worth noting that we've known about shale and how to extract it for many, many decades. The only reason it came into the forefront is that the price of oil on the global market finally made it economical -- shale oil is estimated to cost from $25 - $95 per barrel to extract and process. So the paradox is that the collapse of the world price puts a serious wrench in the shale oil production, which purportedly is the reason for the price of oil.
Most wells don't run at full capacity, and absolutely alter draw speeds to maximize the life and economics of a well.
This is correct, but only to a point. Many producers still lease land for limited timeframes (some of them do have "until we are done" clauses, but this is not the norm in Eagle Ford). If your lease has two years left and you don't expect the price to rebound for 18 months, it's still in your interest to produce NOW, since horizontal drilling (far more expensive than the fracking) is a capital cost you've already paid that you need return on.
