Look at this.....

[Schmoe]

found this on the web. We don't have any oil coming from Iran....AND our largest importer of oil is actually Canada and Mexico?? Didn't know that....


World oil export leaders and their reliance on the U.S. consumer market
(numbers are in million barrels per day, data from EIA)
Country Net Oil Exports U.S. Imports Reliance on U.S. Market
Saudi Arabia 8.7 1.27 15%
Russia 6.6 0.047 Norway 2.9 0.1 3%
Iran 2.5 0 0%
Venezuela 2.3 1.01 44%
UAE 2.3 0.021 Kuwait 2.2 0.27 12%
Nigeria 2.1 1.16 55%
Mexico 1.8 1.66 92%
Canada 1.8 1.8 99+%
Algeria 1.6 0.26 16%
Iraq 1.4 0.57 41%
Libya 1.3 0.051 4%
Kazakhstan 1.0 0 0%
Qatar 1.0 0 0%

 

[ccdhowell]

Kinda stinks that we get so much from Venezuela.

 

[Pontius Pilate]

quote:

---

We don't have any oil coming from Iran

---

you think that will stop them from jacking up the prices when iran cuts off whoever they supply? fact is 99% of americans don't know where their oil comes from so using iran as an excuse to jack it up is a good plan... look what happened when the 3 car bombs tried to blow up at the largest refinery in saudi arabia, i think one got into the second security perimeter and was gunned down....but the fact that there was ALMOST an attack was good enough to jack up prices for a little bit until everyone found out the truth... wheres the biodeisel? i want those philly kids to make me a car, i'll pay

 

[robbobster]

In a worldwide oil market, it's all interrelated.

While we may not get oil from Iran, any petroleum-related move on their part will affect prices worldwide.

 

[Schmoe]

Pont....we think alike, I tell you that. It don't take much for oil prices to escalate. You think the oil companies are enjoying this.
Rob...well, yeah, but they need our food and nobody else can sustain them like we can. Food for oil....why won't this work. But I was thinking, just WHY are we over there then in the first place if most of our oil needs comes from this continent? I'm like most, I had thought that 50 plus percent of our oil usage came from the middle east. I didn't know that. Just why are we risking our soldiers lives and all our money? To help rebuild a country that needed rebuilding, or didn't have anything to begin with? After coming across those facts, it just changed my whole understanding and belief as to exactly WHAT is our mission over there. Don't read this wrong, I work for the military and been a brat all my life, totally support the military in every way....just wonder what the upper command is thinking and if in the long run, it was all worth it.

 

[robbobster]

Schmoe your points are well stated. This is my opinion:
IMHO we are there because that is a very unstable oil-producing region. While we don't get much oil from over there, all that turmoil has a worldwide effect on the prices that we pay. An our European allies do get a higher percentage of oil from that region than we do.

Venezuela is also a political nightmare right now. While militarily we aren't officially doing anything, you can be sure that we are interjecting in other ways, in an effort to stabilize things and thus stabilize prices.

Squeezing the supply in one part of the world tightens remaining supplies for the rest of the world.

Oil is the currency of an energy-dependent world. The stability of the worldwide supply cannot be underestimated.

FYI - I'm not trying to get political or inflammatory at all. This is just my opinion, hopefully stated in an non-political & non-inflammatory way. Don't want to get this thread locked!

 

[Schmoe]

Dude, SAY what's on your mine! This is America, ain't it? Seems like our Euro-buddies need to chip into the ante a little bit more, eh? We can't police force the world.