No, I wouldn't put it in those terms (government directing oil production of shale oil). I was trying to use oil as an example of a commodity that is often used as a foreign policy tool (see https://www.cfr.org/timeline/oil-dependence-and-us-foreign-p... for some flavor of that) There was a pretty decent article on oil as foreign policy in either the Economist or Foreign Policy Review which showed regulatory response to oil production when viewed as policy. The bottom line was that the Government can make it "easier" or "harder" to get to oil reserves through regulation or easing regulation. And those changes, combined with the short term ability to fill or dump the strategic oil reserves influences the market in ways that are useful.