Phil > The US may just let these countries fend for themselves as far as oil shortage is concerned, having secured their own oil supplies. Pure conjecture of course.
Although the US now imports more oil from elsewhere than from the Mid East, Mid East sources are nevertheless still vital to the US because it is so heavily dependent on oil as an energy source. So clearly it would suffer in any general oil shortage.
iht.com
>>When it comes to supplying the United States with oil, Africa is quietly trumping the Middle East.
U.S. crude oil imports from Africa topped supplies from the Middle East in 2006 for the first time in 21 years, recent government data show. As recently as 2001, U.S. imports from the Middle East surpassed African supplies by more than 10 percent, or 1.3 million barrels a day. Now, the fractional edge given to African crude oil suppliers underscores a number of market changes and may grow wider in coming years.
Surging growth from Asia — led by China, where oil demand is expected to grow 6.2 percent this year — is drawing huge volumes of Middle East crude. In the U.S. market, output constraints from aging oil fields in Mexico and Venezuela are weighing on imports from those countries.
Crude supplies from Africa and the Middle East each accounted for a 22 percent share of U.S. crude imports, but in actual physical supplies, Africa's flow topped the Middle East by 8,000 barrels a day.<<
As an aside, I'm sure you'll be glad to see that Canada is the biggest supplier but I suppose you know this already.
>>Canada remains the top U.S. crude supplier, a title it has held each year since 2004, when it eclipsed Saudi Arabia. In 2006, Canada supplied 1.782 million barrels a day to the United States, the most ever from a single source and a 9.1 percent jump from a year ago.<<
As regards oil at $100 - $150 per bbl, the US would once again be a victim -- not only would the high price impact directly on its own economy, the US depends on Asia both for consumer goods and to buy its debt of $2bn/day. |
