Exactly how long has America been depended on oil from the Middle East?

Question

And why does it matter?

Answer 1

Defining depended is hard. Since high percentage of their crude is light crude, which is easier and cheaper to refine would guess as soon as import tariff was lifted we used more imports than domestic, but few were aware till oil embargo in late sixties. Don't know when import tax was originally lifted. OPEC that was created during Vietnam era forced it's one time removal after three day war between Israel and Egypt and Syria. If answer to this question is important to you, then try looking in book The Prize, which is history of oil.

Answer 2

I know the US been dependent on Middle Eastern oil at least since the 1960s. It matters in that the depencency on their oil is a major reason for all the instability in that region and it has helped prop up corrupt and repressive regimes (example: Saudi Arabia).

Answer 3

106.1738329101 years.

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It dosen't matter.

Answer 4

for the last 50 years.

Answer 5

To be accurate we are not dependent on oil from the Middle East.  All that is just convenient talk to keep us around there for other reasons.

We get at the very most 15% of our oil from the Middle East.  We get more from Canada than Saudi Arabia.  We get 3 times more oil from Mexico than Iraq.

Example from the month of November 2007 in thousands of barrels:

CANADA 1,919

SAUDI ARABIA 1,530

MEXICO 1,484

VENEZUELA 1,227

NIGERIA 1,215

IRAQ 508

ANGOLA 408

In the 90's, Middle East oil was no more than 10% of our oil needs.  Japan and Europe are much more dependent on Gulf oil than America by almost 8-1 and 3-1 respectively in that same time.

Dont let them fool you...

It only matters as far as which corporations can privatize and profit off oil exploration and refining.  Oil from the middle east in and of itself is unecessary to us.  The money is in the privatization and production.