Any discussion involving the United States and Middle East necessarily centers around the resource known as oil. It is often suggested that the dependence of the United States on the Middle East for oil is crippling it and even should be considered a national defense concern. Is this true or a bit of propaganda? Let's take a look.
Middle Eastern Elephants
Most people assume the Middle East is important, but few can actually say why. The answer is elephants. No, not the four legged beasts. In this case, we are talking about huge oil fields. The real secret of the oil industry is that the vast amount of oil that is produced in the world has come from a relatively small number of fields. It just so happens that a number of them are in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has Ghawar, which is generally considered the biggest to have ever been found. There are or were also large fields in Iran, the border of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well as in Iraq. Yes, I know that last one must come as a shock to you. Anyway, this is why the Middle East is important not to mention it has a number of smaller fields that produce.
U.S. Reliance
Okay, so just how reliant is the United States on the Middle East for oil? The answer is a shocker. Not very reliant at all. We import roughly 13 percent of our daily oil from the region. That is it. In truth, we import most of our oil from...Canada. Mexico isn't far behind.
Surprised? Well, you should be. For all the discussion of our reliance on the Middle East, the simple fact is it is a bunch of baloney...today. The future is another question. The United States is facing a future oil crisis of significance and we are already seeing the impact.
The first problem is Mexico. Mexico has an elephant known as Cantrell and it has peaked. Not only can it no longer produce what it once did, the production rate per year is falling dramatically. This is bad for both Mexico and the United States. Mexico is reliant on revenues from oil sales and the U.S. obviously needs the oil.
The second problem is Canada is quickly becoming primarily a tar sands oil producer. There is plenty of oil in the sands. The problem is getting it out. One does not pump it like a traditional well. Instead, one has to basically mine it like coal and then process it using huge amounts of heated water. Finding enough water to do the processing on a very large scale is problematic at best. Canada will always be a big importer to the United States, but it can only produce so much.
Future
So, how will the United States deal with future oil needs? That is the big question. There are no easy answers. There is 10 billion barrels of oil in Alaska, but that is not much despite what it sounds like. The United States uses roughly 19 million barrels a day, which is the equivalent of roughly 6 billion a year. In short, that 10 billion will go fast.
The only real alternative is...Iraq. It has been seriously underdeveloped and there is a strong suspicion there may be an elephant field or two to be found there. Oddly, it just so happens that we also happen to have three permanent military bases there as well as one huge embassy. Funny how that happens.
How reliant is the United Stats on the Middle East for oil at this time? The answer is surprising in that we really aren't very reliant. That will change, however, in the future and Mexico continues to deplete.
Patrick Sampson writes for ThePeakOilQuestion.com - a site exploring the peak oil question and debate.
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