Most of the world's oil is in state ownership run by unstable,corrupt and inept governments. That's the real reason for the lack of production responses to high prices,not a geologically determined peaking in oil production. On the pretext of acting as custodians for the "people's oil",corrupt governments appoint their cronies to take charge of state energy agencies in order to siphon off the revenues for their own enrichment. This cronyism and bureaucratic stink impede efficient operations and technical advances. Symptoms of this can be seen in:

[]Possible reneging on contracts with the big international oil companies in Russia,where Gazprom is trying to bully them out of control of new discoveries,with the government using allegations of tax evasion against BP management and non-compliance with environmental regulations.
[]Mexican opposition groups demonstrating in parliament against plans to subcontract deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to American companies,drilling the Mexican state oil company Pemex is unable to do itself.
[]Sabotage of Nigerian pipelines and theft of oil production.
[]Iran's importation of petrol.
[]While American oilfield service companies like Haliburton and Schlumberger provide efficient technical services to third world oil producers lacking those skills, they are vulnerable to being squeezed,though not to the extent of big oil exploration companies which risk having major discoveries confiscated.
[]In the Middle East,exploration activity for oil is far less than it would be under private ownership and far less efficient.

The good news is that the extremely high price of oil,if it lasts,could be the saviour of the Earth's environment as green energy becomes economic. The best green energy tech is likely to be solar,since most of the world's population can access it if the price is right. A California company has developed low cost solar using hybrid technologies to mass produce thin solar sheets that roll off the assembly line like rolls of thin aluminium foil. This low cost solar product was economic to produce at lower oil prices and its production costs should drop sharply as typically happens with new techs over time.