Hey Franc,
As to the "reserves' you mentioned. Under the conditions you suggested, ie; war, OPEC runs dry etc, having unproven reserves in the ground would be useless. We need to be exploiting them, proving them and then judiciaously using them as leverage to get the best pricing, or the best strategic positioning.
Lately I've been trying to get a broader understanding of the situation. My interests are kind of narrow and unfortunately oil production is something I'm not up on, so you have to excuse my somewhat primitive deductive reasoning
After reading your posts, I picked out the above quote as being the crux/center of your arguments. I believe you are saying that (I paraphrase) "The US should become a competitive producer of oil".
Let me know if I'm misinterpreting you.
You'll have to explain to me what is gained exactly by leveraging our own production of oil. What is the benefit that you are proposing exactly? Are you implying that producing our own oil = lower oil prices? I'm just trying to follow you that's all.
Also, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by unproven reserves as being useless.