The price of a barrel of oil is at a four-year high. But don’t expect another American production boom to replace the crude that’s choked off in the Strait of Hormuz.
America’s domestic oil production in recent years has been growing at a much slower pace than the peak gains from the previous decade and a half. Abundant supply has kept oil prices below $60 a barrel for most of the last year, making production less profitable. Meanwhile, oil companies have sunk more money into share repurchases than exploration.
The Trump administration has been busy trying to expand US production over the past several days