The first thing to acknowledge is that the chances of the petroleum industry ever being nationalized in America are something that is in all probability never going to happen, unless the governance of this nation makes a serious change in the direction of determining that a commodity as important as petroleum should be nationalized for the benefit of the people and enforces that belief by enacting appropriate legislation.
When it comes to the government nationalizing certain segments of the economy, it is recognized that it is sensible to do so for important functions which we are dependent upon, such as electricity, sewage, water, and roads, so there isn’t any good reason why petroleum especially shouldn’t be considered to be nationalized because it has to be admitted that World War II had an awful lot to do with oil and the necessary need and access to oil, for societies run on oil and have been running on oil for decades. This would presuppose that while there is something to be said about having for-profit companies in the business of extracting and refining oil, it could be considered to be such a vital need for the economy and the safety and uplift of the people that nationalization makes sense. After all, decisions could thereby be made about how best to extract and develop oil resources from public lands, in addition to fair payment made for extraction from private lands, along with emphasizing the need for a robust infrastructure with appropriate redundancy because petroleum is such a valued resource, and as proven by the oil embargo of the 1970s, the lack of access to oil is devastating to the people and the society that they are a member of.
This then is the argument for the nationalization of oil, which not only would mean that profits would thereby be regulated by the government, but would permit that government to determine as to what to prioritize for the betterment of American citizens through the fair usage and pricing of this commodity, along with the long-term vision as to what should and should not be done within that industry that takes into consideration pollution while also leaving room for alternatives to petroleum, because once the private profit is taken out of the equation, possibilities that have been marginalized, thereby come into their own.
Of course, all of this would appear to be an intellectual exercise, as the power of the major oil companies, not just here in America, but globally, is not going to allow anybody other than a small and connected cabal in conjunction often in foreign countries with the prevailing governmental structure thus controlling where those petroleum profits go and how they are subsequently divvied up, thereby typically benefiting the few at the expense of the many which is the salient reason why the petroleum industry needs to be nationalized, which might just result in the pricing of oil becoming a heck of a lot more favorable to those that utilize it.