I'm confused about where oil comes from

[movie_girl99]

i had an argument with a freeper co worker about shrub invading Irag partly to control their oil. He told me that most of our oil comes form Canada and Mexico. I googled and found this site and it seems we get very little oil from Iraq..so someone please enlighten me so when i go back to talk to him i wont look like a complete goober.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/contactexperts.htm

which shows:
Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Apr-05 Mar-05 YTD 2005 Apr-04 Jan - Apr 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CANADA 1,676 1,451 1,551 1,596 1,575
MEXICO 1,541 1,590 1,510 1,566 1,556
SAUDI ARABIA 1,449 1,553 1,533 1,161 1,344
VENEZUELA 1,391 1,315 1,352 1,372 1,327
NIGERIA 1,130 879 1,030 1,044 1,062
IRAQ 542 548 522 755 649
RUSSIA 464 295 305 193 63
ANGOLA 365 675 461 325 303
UNITED KINGDOM 256 290 225 306 255
ECUADOR 240 305 302 225 178
ALGERIA 232 134 182 261 183
COLOMBIA 183 108 128 136 146
KUWAIT 164 179 179 322 215
NORWAY 137 165 130 131 166
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 87 64 64 77 66

[cwrightmills]

1. Well...

Those are the countries that we buy oil from... Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world (http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/solberkr.html) but have been limited in their ability to export and sell oil since UN sanctions were imposed.

In other words, they have a bunch of oil but were not allowed to sell it (except for food).

[movie_girl99]

5. okay so basically these countries that we buy from

are the middle man. They have the refineries so we get it from them but initially the majority of it comes from Saudi and Iraq? Is that the gist of it?

[cwrightmills]

7. No...

The oil is coming from Mexico and Canada -- there are oil wells all over the world. Right now we have favorable trading arrangements with those countries so we buy from them. However, Iraq has oil reserves that will be around much longer so we want to control them. Their oil refineries have been operating at way under capacity since the first Gulf war (since many of them were destroyed and their exports were restricted).

[movie_girl99]

14. you guys are great...

so many knowledgeable folks. This really helps...many THANKS!!!!

[KlatooBNikto]

2. According to the girls in my granddaughter's junior high class,oil

comes from the gas station and milk comes from the supermarket.End of story.

[oscar111]

4. Now, but ALL could come fm Iraq tomorrow

today is not tomorrow.

news just had story on big private co's meeting to carve up iraq oil output.

expect a lot to go to exon, BP, etc.

[trotsky]

3. Iraq has the largest (or second largest?) proven reserves in the world.

It's not for immediate consumption that we invaded - it's to secure that supply for years down the road.

[Warpy]

6. The point isn't where we get our oil, it's about CONTROLLING

where the rest of the world gets their oil. With big bases in Iraq (which is really the point), the US will be able to open or close the oil spigot to Asia and Europe as the political climate demands.

And that is why the rest of the world will eventually unite against us if this idiocy of Empire isn't stopped.

[rkc3]

10. Ding, Ding, Ding! Sounds like a winner to me.

14 new military bases in Iraq goes a long way to ensuring our interests are protected in the region. Their installation also ensures that the Muslim world will continue their guerilla attacks on our military and their civilians therefore justifying to Americans the need to keep these bases in the region.

It's practically flawless.

[IrateCitizen]

8. It's not about present consumption, it's about CONTROL...

Just take a look at where Iraq is on a map. Then, consider the significant permanent bases that are being constructed in Iraq. From there, we can theoretically strike Iran, Syria, even Saudi Arabia if necessary, with a minimum of preparation.

Iraq is essentially providing a military "police station" in the Middle East from which the US can control the world's oil spigot, therefore maintaining global hegemony. At least in neoconservative theory.

But Iraq's reserves may prove disappointing. All Middle East countries did a significant increasing of their reserve numbers back in the 1980's, when the Alaskan and North Slope fields really swung into high extraction, in order to maintain their influence over the oil market. Saddam increased Iraq's numbers from something like 47 billion barrels to 100 billion almost overnight -- so the numbers aren't that reliable. Also, Iraq used some rather dubious high-extraction techniques through the 1980's, which could have caused significant geological damage to the oil fields, resulting in less recoverable oil.

Your freeper coworker is not addressing your argument. He is correct in that the US gets most of its oil from Canada and Mexico. However, that does not refute your argument that the US invaded Iraq in order to CONTROL its oil, because that was PRECISELY the reason we went in.

[ThomWV]

9. Just So You Understand

We get our oil from a number of sources and in fact in recent history we were a major exporter of oil ourselves. Most of the mid east oil actually finds its way to Asia, with a good bit going to Europe. Some heads this way of course, and some is a lot in this case, but not all of it or even most of it, not by a long shot. However that really doesn't make much difference.

The world wide price of oil is dependent on world wide supply and so the price of a barrel of oil coming out of an Oklahoma well is not a function of US supply and demand, its a function of world demand for the existing supply. Iraq presents an opportunity for a major portion of the world supply and so having control of that tap gives one the ability to control the price world-wide, or if one would choose to use a full or partial embargo to control the economy of any major user. Can you spell C-H-I-N-A?

Here's an interesting little tidbit for you too. Economists use the word 'marginal' all the time and when they do they are talking about the last thing of a series. So when they talk about the marginal cost of production what they really mean is what did it cost to make the last thing, lets say a Chevy Impala off an assembly line or a barrel of oil out of the well, that came off of the production line? Other little tricks of the economist tell the producer that when the cost of that last one off the assembly line, or last barrel out of the pipe equals the maximum people will pay for it you have hit your maximum profit point. Now the news. The marginal cost of production for all US oil is $17 per barrel. The profit being made now days by small independents, many of whom used to do nicely at $15 per barrel and now out of this world. Small companies in Texas and Oklahoma that used to make a dollar a barrel are now making almost twice as much profit on a barrel of oil as the entire barrel used to cost less than 10 years ago. How much of that money do you think finds its way donated right back to the Republican Party?

[shraby]

11. There is also a super huge deposit

beneath the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan.

[aion]

12. The USA wants oil traded in petrol-dollars

One of the reasons that Hussein lost favor with the neocons (we know the gassing didn't upset Rumsfeld) was because he was going to base his oil on the Euro rather than the Dollar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar

[Coexist]

13. Here is some important reading for you for this argument

Thread on the imminent carving up of resources in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1574915


Remember those "secret" energy policy meetings that everyone was up in arms about?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/071703.c_.shtml