I've never heard of Econ 102.  In Econ 201, you'd learn basic macro economic principals and know that us ramping up oil production (a finite resource) would do nothing but drive the price down further making us less competitive with our much higher operational costs when compared to the middle east.  Best bet would be (which the big oil companies are doing) is to cut costs and wait for the price to naturally increase.  It becomes a little bit tricky because global demand is in fact falling and the major oil companies require insatiable margin to fulfill the needs of shareholders and upper management.  The sad part is upper management passes along the pink slips for the guys on the well heads while their compensation increases as their profitability compounds.  Literally some of these guys (and girls) make what a 100 guys making 100k a year on the slope do.  Point is - even at these low prices they are still are profitable.  Don't let the politics fool you.  Check out salary.com