[Dialup Llama]

> Since you dismiss US dependency on Saudi oil,

Europe uses Saudi oil. The US uses Mexican, North Sea and Venezuelan oil.

[anatolfz]

This oil business is a difficult topic. I don't think anybody agrees on the implications of control and pricing.
For example, the U.S. actually could find enough oil on their own territory. Never mind Alaska, there is oil deep down in OK and TX; just very expensive to exploit. So it's not about oil, it's about money.

[anatolfz]

Sorry, I should have thought of it before. Nobody should be deceived by Russia. Their intentions have always been the same and they haven't really misled anyone about this.
I should think the same is true of China; they're doing what they have to do, so it's no good whining at them: they've given us no reason to think otherwise.

[Stavka2]

Ahh, so all those imports from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq (15% of US imported oil through Oil for Food) are imaginery? If anything, Europe uses most of the N. Sea oil...closer to ship it duty free to Europe then the US and Russian oil through vast pipelines.

[plusone]

True, but the overall world price for oil results from the last few thousand barrels pumped 'at the margin' as economists call it. So no matter where our oil comes from, the price is set by the total world production over and above consumption. If the Saudis or whoever pump a few thousand barrels more than is needed at that time, the marginal price will drop, dragging down the value of all world production. That is why OPEC was such a force to be reckoned with for so long, they controlled that last little bit of surplus production, helping to boost prices above what they would have been otherwise. So even if our oil is from Mexico, what happens in the middle east will affect the world price.