I agree with you. They are there for profit. This is where the argument that they are leasing land that they aren't drilling falls flat on it's face. If there is oil on that land, they are either performing exploration on where to drill, are going through the process of getting all the permits needed to drill, or they are setting up to drill if not drilling as we speak.

Even after they start pumping, until they reach 130,000 barrels of oil per day they aren't considered active. Of course, they don't know if there is oil on a piece of land until they do exploration. And they can't do exploration until they lease the land. I'm sure they have other ways to tell if it is probably, possible, or ...

I agree with you. They are there for profit. This is where the argument that they are leasing land that they aren't drilling falls flat on it's face. If there is oil on that land, they are either performing exploration on where to drill, are going through the process of getting all the permits needed to drill, or they are setting up to drill if not drilling as we speak.

Even after they start pumping, until they reach 130,000 barrels of oil per day they aren't considered active. Of course, they don't know if there is oil on a piece of land until they do exploration. And they can't do exploration until they lease the land. I'm sure they have other ways to tell if it is probably, possible, or unlikely that a lease would be profitable, but until you can actually do the exploration you never know. So there are probably many leases that they have which just aren't profitable. Sinking wells would be a waste because there is nothing there, or at least not enough to be profitable.

Oh ya, and even though they have a lease, that doesn't mean they can just drill away. They still have to draw up plans and get permits. Just because a lease isn't active doesn't mean it isn't being worked on, and just because land was leased doesn't mean there will always be enough oil or gas there to make it worth drilling.