Quick and dirty, Ike made a deal with the Saudi’s. We had the technology to build coal gas plants after WWII (the German used mainly coal gas at the end of the war) to supply all of our oil needs.
Ike told the Saudi’s that he would support them in taking over the oil wells, in return for favorable prices. The goal was to keep the Soviets from the oil and the region.
Short term it worked. The Soviets never penetrated into the Middle East, and the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was a stabilizing force. Trouble is that all the tensions they were sitting on required a huge amount of oil money to contain, and the Wahabbi’s (a left over British innovation from WWI) started to gain followers. Now they are sitting on top of a needle, hoping the wind won’t blow.
By putting domestic oil back on line, we are cutting out the only remaining support the house of Saud has to hold on to power. Now, that may not be the worst thing, but it will make the area rather unstable.
see #36
Also it will make Venezuela and Iran unstable. Not exactly a bad idea.