The official reason is national security, so that the US petroleum reserve can be maintained for use in the case of war.
Oil reserves in the United States are owned by a combination of private companies, government entities like the Department of Energy, and individuals who own mineral rights on land where oil is present. The federal government also maintains the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address energy security concerns.
The drilled oil belongs to whoever owns the specific oil rig.
Canada has 179 billion barrels of oil in reserve. The US has only 26.5 billion barrels of oil in reserve.
The Commonwealth
The US currently holds a "reserve" of 345 billion barrels of crude oil in land. However they hold a 250 billion reserve of shore trhough out the Pacific trnech and Gulf of Mexico.
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) currently holds approximately 630 million barrels of crude oil. This reserve is meant to be used in case of emergencies or disruptions in oil supply.
ALOT. 700mil barrels
Middle east countries
according to U.S. monthly, japan owns 21.34333 percent of U.S. soil and about 41 percent of the federal reserve.
The country of Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserve in the world with over 100 billion oil barrels. The second largest oil reserve in the world is Iraq with over 21 billion barrels.
At the end of 2008, the US had about 714,000,000 barrelsof crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.