I don't think I understand what you wrote. Who is we in "We pay very little for oil"? All US drivers? Then who uses more? If more oil is available to someone, the price they pay becomes lower.

The interest of the oil companies is to maximize our demand while constraining their supply. That is the way to maximize profits.

 

we = americans. other countries that don't have their own oil reserves pay more.

 

I think we pay as much as buyers in any other country for our oil. There are benchmark prices for e.g. Texas crude, or North Sea Brent, or whatever type of crude, and everyone pays pretty much the same commodity price. An independent refinery in Texas, 1 mile away from the wellhead, pays as much for the crude as a refiner in Japan which doesn't have any domestic oil.

The only people paying less are in countries that are net oil exporters, like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, where the government subsidizes the local price compared to what they get from exports. Nobody pays more than we do.

 

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I stand corrected in my thinking.