|
Volume CXXXII, Number 12 |
 |
The war over gasoline and oil
TIMOTHY J. RIEMER
COLUMNIST
In considering a topic for this week's issue of the Orient, I thought there wouldn't be a more appropriate topic than one related to what seems as an inevitble war with Iraq. I have heard many people suggest that the real reason the U.S. wants to overthrow Saddam Hussein and invade Iraq is oil. I questioned, however, whether the U.S. really depends on Iraq for oil. How much oil does the U.S. actually import from Iraq? Does the U.S. import more oil from Iraq than other countries? I thought that many other people might have the same questions that I did. So I decided to do a little research on oil imports and supply you with the evidence to help you make your own decision.
http://www.ott.doe.gov/facts/archives/fotw246supp.shtml
The U.S., according to these statistics does not seem to have a heavy
dependence on Iraqi oil. According to these statistics, Iraqi oil only
represents roughly 7% of imported oil. The majority of imported oil seems
to come to from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Venezuela. The U.S.
dependence on Venezuela is probably the real reason we have seen oil prices
rise recently to their highest prices in years. The current strike in
Venezuela has caused the sole oil producer in Venezuela, Petroleos de
Venezuela SA, to curtail production roughly 90%. Taking this into consideration,
it would seem that the U.S. would have a lot more to gain in oil industry
by dealing with Venezuela than with Iraq. This does not mean, however,
that the U.S. does not have anything to gain, in terms of oil, if we go
to war with Iraq again.
|
FastCounter by bCentral |