Riddle me this

I know this is something i should have known a long time ago,but just recently learned where exactly we get our oil from.
I found it extremely interesting just who we get our oil from. Cnada? Far and away in first with mexico second. Saudi's are only third with iraq and kuwait in the running. This just begs the question,why in the hell do middle east unrst and their oil have that big an impact on us? It sure seems to me that we have enough proven reserves to easily make up for a bit of a shortfall. Geez,every little buck strickland oil and gas co publicly traded has proven or known reserves of large enough quantity to produce more petro.

Even norway and nigeria are on there(I'm still waiting on money from a princess in nigeria,sheena queen of the jungle,but the barrister lord ben M Oveur has the $ tied up still in some kind of escrow. Will only cost me another 5K to get the funds released. When i get my half mil,PARTY IN VEGAS! on me and queen sheena)

Out of roughly 8400 barrels only about 1700 are from the middle east? Doesn't seem like such a huge disruption should be made over them. Why should it cause as big of a deal as it does.
JOHN

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Mar-11 Feb-11 YTD 2011 Mar-10 YTD 2010
CANADA 2,151 2,193 2,163 2,020 1,934
MEXICO 1,186 998 1,138 1,086 1,040
SAUDI ARABIA 1,107 1,114 1,107 1,149 1,000
VENEZUELA 957 878 930 984 908
NIGERIA 840 948 918 939 945
IRAQ 382 263 375 475 506
COLOMBIA 363 175 284 216 291
RUSSIA 314 97 174 248 199
ALGERIA 268 138 265 276 296
ANGOLA 261 357 302 490 358
KUWAIT 161 118 143 218 169
BRAZIL 158 175 198 299 256
ECUADOR 142 242 186 183 182
NORWAY 100 21 41 5 9
UNITED KINGDOM 88 0 42 142 177

Oil is a global commodity. As such, it doesn't really matter where a particular barrel of oil was produced, because it's a fungible product whose price was set on a global market.

Yes, the US gets more of its imported oil from Canada than from any other country. That's a function of the cost of transportation: Canada would rather sell its oil to the US than, say, China, because transportation costs to the US are less. We're right next door, not on the other side of the world.

Roughly a third of the world's oil comes from shaky Middle East dictatorships. Disrupt their ability to produce, and the world will suddenly be willing to pay much more for oil we want to continue to buy from our (relative) neighbors in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela.

THAT'S why the Middle East's production is a much bigger deal than Canada's production is. One is reliable and can be expected to continue uninterrupted. The other isn't, and might dwindle at any time.

The U.S. forgot about that little hickup that happened in the 1970's called an oil embargo. Instead of drilling for new oil here and building up the capacity to use it, they sat on their respective a$$e$$ and did nothing.

If some of you don't remember the oil embargo, ask your parents if they can remember $0.20 a gallon gas. Yes boys and girls, $0.20 for a gallon of gas.

U.S. domestic oil production increased following the 1973 embargo by OPEC, peaking in 1986.

Not sure how you got that backwards, but you did.

When gas cost 20 cents a gallon, you could go to a double feature movie for ten cents. A magazine or comic book cost ten cents, a hamburger was a dime and you could ride the subway for a nickle. When you factor in inflation, gasoline is still relatively inexpensive.

Try the refining. The last speck was the crude in Alaska and that was already found, it was fastracked in order to satisify public opinion. Please tell me who exactly used that oil? I do know it wasn't the U.S.

As long as the oil companies and their politician puppets run the world there will always be disatisfaction
about the price of oil/gas! et/al
Try googling the bakken shale oil formation!!!! Wonder why we depend on the middle east?
The whole problem is the oil based economy that no one wants to abandon, especially the oil companies and the kings of the so called government.
I don't care how political this is.......................I'm still not getting any offers from vegas casinos?!?!?!!?!?

I'm sure as hell not getting $1,000 in FSP at the Wynn.

When discussing all those prices associated with 20 cent oil, don't forget housing. I bought my first house in 1971 when gas up here was about 25-30 cents a gallon. It was a small 3 bed with carport and a double lot (80x140). It cost 17,500! My monthly payment including reserve for taxes and insurance was a whopping $160 a month! That doesn't cover my property taxes now and they just went down.

Remembering these prices is one reason I don't complain about airfares. At that time, my job took me to LA (from Sea) every couple of months. The then regulated fare was $163. Not sure why I remember that, but I always have. Anyway, today I'm paying roughly 17 times what I was for gas back then. My wife and I could go to the local Black Angus for dinner, consuming a couple of drinks along with two sirloin dinners and a decent tip for $20! A 240Z was about $4K. A bottle of Dewars scotch was about ten bucks ($30 in Wa now). The list goes on and on. So when I get nicked $250-300 getting to Vegas, I try to see it in a relative manner.

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes

chefantwon,

The oil that started flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline in 1977 was subject to an oil export ban. By law, that oil could only be sold in the United States. The ban was in place for 18 years, throughout the peak of production.

For 18 years, ALL of the oil from Alaska's North Slope was used in the United States. By law.

I don't understand how you could write what you did.