Why aren't oil companies drilling where oil drilling is already been approved?

Democratic members of Congress have repeatedly said that there are hundreds of approved drilling sites that the oil companies can get permits to drill at, and they are not following through! Why not?





In other words, even if Congress voted to allow offshore drilling, would the oil companies even bother?Why aren't oil companies drilling where oil drilling is already been approved?
Wall Street Journal: “Companies don’t know how much oil is under the lands they lease, so they buy up large swaths in hope that a fraction will work out. Much of the area that isn’t producing, they say, doesn’t have oil or gas in commercially viable quantities. Moreover, bringing a new field into production can require years of mapping, testing, drilling and construction – during which time the land would show up in statistics as being ‘not in production,’ even as companies spend millions or even billions of dollars to bring it on line.” (6/16/08)


* Geological Experts: “’There’s the misconception that every lease has oil,’ added David Curtiss, director of the [American Association of Petroleum Geologists’] Washington office. ‘A lease is a line on a map. It has nothing to do with the geology of where oil is.’” (CQ, 6/16/08)





It can cost billions to secure leases and producers must pay annual rent on the leased acres, regardless of whether the lease is producing oil or gas. If they fail to pay the annual rent to the government, the leases are forfeited.(30 USC 188 (b))Why aren't oil companies drilling where oil drilling is already been approved?
As long as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act goes unchanged nothing anyone does will matter. You can drill your little hearts out and completely destroy the environment, but nothing will change as long as speculators are allowed to run amok.





Simply adding the words ';and energy'; to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act would bring gas prices down overnight.





80% of all known oil off the continental shelf of the United States have already been granted permits to drill, but those that would do the drilling are sitting on those permits. Ask yourself why.
taxation is an issue (and obama will make that worse by the way)





But the other issue is that the land granted to them is under a lease that expires in the near future. Until recently, this drilling was not necessary because oil was less than $40 a barrell. Now that it is over $200 a barrel, they do need to drill, but the lease on that land is expiring soon. So the oil companies are not developing the land in fear that it may be illegal to drill there once the lease expires.





That is why it is important to support those who want drilling, because we will always be independent on the Saudis and mid east for oil otherwise.
One of the problems is that the oil companies have to pay heavy drilling fees to state and/or federal government for any oil that is drilled in the US. They don't have to pay those fees for oil that is imported from other companies. This makes it cheaper to buy the oil and import it rather than to drill for it here.
Now why would the oil companies do something that might actually move oil prices DOWN!!