what are is our countries oil rvenue? and what is it used on?

Question

the united states produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day
thats 2,688,000,000 barrels a year shouldnt the govt be getting a piece of the pie? like 10 or 20 dollars a barrel or something? that would be 57 plus billion a year why doesent the govt take atvantage of this? like man y other countreis have done?

ok? so why not takover the inndustry compeletrly for lets say 3 or 5 years? that would be revenues of around675 billion in 5 years it could ease our debt or help make more money by investing it

Answer 1

The federal and state governments sell oil leases (the right to drill) to the highest bidder. If the oil is off shore or on federal lands the federal government collects , if it is on state land the state does, if it is on private property the property owner. Some times the lease is paid with a royalty so they get a percentage of sales. Alaska is the larges state producer and has substantial income from oil leases. SEE
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9011158&contentId=7022204
Oil companies also pay taxes on profits. The real disgrace is they get a tax break for oil depletion which is 15% of gross sales, which reduces the tax paid.

Answer 2

Oil production in America is private sector. The government gets their cut through taxes (see below). The fact is that government is notoriously bad at handling money in an efficient manner. They use the taxes on roads and public transportation.

The first U.S. state tax on fuel was introduced in February 1919 in Oregon. It was a 1 cent per U.S. gallon (0.3¢/L) tax. In the following decade, all of the U.S. states (48 at the time), along with the District of Columbia, introduced a gasoline tax. By 1939, an average tax of 3.8¢/gal (1¢/L) of fuel was levied by the individual states. The fuel tax in Texas is currently set at 20¢/gal since being raised to that amount in 1991. In May of 2007, the Texas House of representatives unanimously voted to pass a 'gas-tax relief' period for the 2007 summer driving period.

While state fuel taxes had been around for more than a decade, the first federal gasoline tax in the United States was created on June 6, 1932 with the enactment of the Revenue Act of 1932 with a tax of 1 cent/gal (0.3¢/L). The U.S. federal gasoline tax as of 2005 was 18.4¢/gal (4.86¢/L), and the gasoline taxes in the various states range from 10 cents to 33 cents, with an average about 22 cents per U.S. gallon (5.8¢/L), making the average combined tax on gasoline 42¢/gal. Unlike most goods in the U.S., the price displayed includes all taxes, rather than being calculated at the point of purchase.