This appears to be an urban legend
A check with Snopes.com produces the following:
*Origins:* If it weren't for all the gross statistical errors and the
naïve grasp of oil industry economics exhibited here, this piece might
actually have some validity.
Although the message quoted above doesn't address /where/ (outside of
the Middle East) we import oil from, many people come away from
reading it with the mistaken impression that most of the USA's crude
oil is imported from the Middle East. It isn't. According to some
recent figures
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/petroleum_supply_monthly/current/txt/table_35.txt>
regarding crude oil imports, only 31% of the USA's imports came from
Arab OPEC countries (Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia) in
January 2002. The top six countries (by percentage of total USA
imports) supplying crude oil to the USA in January 2002 were:
Saudi Arabia: 16.9%
Mexico: 15.1%
Canada: 15.0%
Venezuela: 14.4%
Iraq: 11.4%
Nigeria: 5.9.%
(Henceforth, our definition of "Middle East" will encompass the five
countries identified by the U.S. Department of Energy as "Arab OPEC"
nations: Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. This
definition does /not/ include other oil-exporting countries identifed
by the DoE as "Persian Gulf" exporters, such as Bahrain, Iran, and the
United Arab Emirates.)
Moving along, we find that nearly all of the statistics offered in the
piece quoted above are erroneous or outdated:
By the way, 86% of all middle eastern oil comes from Saudi Arabia and
Iraq.
Sorry, but no. According to the chart below, straight off the U.S.
Department of Energy's (DoE) web site
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/pgulf.html>, only 56% of the oil
exported from the Persian Gulf in 2001 came from Saudi Arabia and
Iraq, and that figure is probably even lower now that Iraq has cut its
oil exports in protest
<http://fyi.cnn.com/2002/fyi/news/04/08/iraq.oil/> of Israel's recent
actions on the West Bank.
Here are some large companies that do not import much Middle Eastern oil:
Citgo 0 barrels of oil
Sunoco 0
Conoco 0
Sinclair 0
Phillips 0
BP Amoco 62,231,000
Wrong again. The DoE tracks oil imports by company
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/historical/2002/2002_02/data/import.txt>
each month, and although the raw data are a little hard to follow
(fortunately, the DoE also provides an explanation
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/cli_explanation.html>
of their symbols), for February 2002 the totals were as follows:
* CITGO <http://www.citgo.com/Home.jsp> is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the national oil company of Venezuela, so
naturally most of its crude oil comes from there. However, in
February 2002 CITGO also imported from Middle Eastern countries
in the following quantities:
Iraq: 1,342,000 barrels
Kuwait: 437,000 barrels
* Conoco <http://www.conoco.com/> imports primarily from Mexico,
Venezuela, and Canada, and not from Middle Eastern countries.
However, they are planning to merge
<http://www.conoco.com/investor/cp/index.asp> with Phillips,
which /does/ import from Middle Eastern countries (see below).
* BP <http://www.amoco.com/index.asp> imports from a variety of
oil-producing countries, but in February 2002 BP North America
also imported from Middle Eastern countries in the following
quantities:
Iraq: 470,000 barrels
Kuwait: 415,000 barrels
Saudi Arabia: 2,123,000 barrels
Algeria: 3,853,000 barrels
* Phillips <http://www.phillips66.com/phillips66.asp> also imports
from a variety of oil-producing countries, but in February 2002
Phillips imported from Middle Eastern countries in the following
quantities:
Iraq: 717,000 barrels
Saudi Arabia: 1,100,000 barrels
* Sinclair <http://www.sinclairoil.com/> imports from Canada, not
the Middle East.
* Sunoco <http://www.sunoco.com/> imports primarily from Canada,
Angola, and Nigeria, not Middle Eastern countries.
So, "doing the math" and multiplying these monthly figures by
$30/barrel and projecting them over the course of a year, supporting
only the companies listed above would still be putting $3.76 /billion/
dollars per year in the coffers of Middle Eastern countries.
Statistics aside, the glaring fallacy here is the suggestion that we
could possibly buy our gasoline only from these selected companies.
This notion is like claiming that we could put the big grocery chains
out of business if we all bought our food only from small mom & pop
stores, but ignoring the fact that these small shops couldn't possibly
come close to supplying all our grocery needs. The oil companies named
above are relatively small (which is a large part of the reason why
they don't necessarily import from the Middle East) and could not
satisfy the demand that would be created if a significant portion of
the USA's consumer base were to shun all the largest oil companies,
unless they bought up the output of the companies we were supposed to
be avoiding in the first place (or, alternatively, unless they raised
their prices sky-high).
Moreover, the idea that oil companies sell gasoline only through their
branded service stations, and therefore if you don't buy gasoline from
Shell-branded gas stations you're not sending money to Shell (or, by
extension, the Middle East), is wrong. Oil companies sell their output
through a variety of outlets other than their branded stations; as
well, by the time crude oil gets from the ground into our gasoline
tanks, there's no telling exactly where it came from. (A good deal of
the crude oil purchased from Russia
<http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/iraq010720_cooley.html>,
for example, is oil from Iraqi fields sold through Russian middlemen.)
As the /St. Louis Post-Dispatch/ noted:
Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of
"bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some
unintended (and unhappy) results.
Although foreign relations wax and wane, Welch says, the law of supply
and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the
good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who
are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."
So motorists would end up buying Arab oil anyway — and paying more for
it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.
And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of
AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more
economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."
Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at
all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline -- and buy
it all from somebody else's refinery."
St. Louis University's Welch says, "The e-mail presupposes that you
know who the supplier is, and that's not always the case."
Finally, what this scheme proposes is merely a symbolic solution
rather than a practical one, because even if the USA stopped importing
oil from the Middle East, other countries will still purchase it.
(Japan alone, for example, generally buys as much or more oil from
countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait than the USA does.)
Complex problems rarely lend themselves to simple, painless answers.
Simply shifting /where/ we buy gasoline isn't nearly as good a
solution as the much tougher choice of sharply curtailing the /amount/
of gasoline we buy.
*Last updated:* 16 March 2005
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/saudigas.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2005
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
Harley Michaelis wrote:
*This is soaring related in that we all buy gasoline to do our flying.
I thought this analysis was worth passing on in that it points out
which of the companies we buy gas from import Middle East oil and
which don't. *
**
*I don't have a long mailing list outside of the RCSE, so this was my
best avenue to pass on the message. I trust it is a legitimate one
worth our consideration.*
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Jenny Eggers <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*To:* Eggman2 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Sent:* Monday, April 04, 2005 5:46 PM
*Subject:* Gas to reach 3 dollars a gallon
*Sent:* Monday, April 04, 2005 8:42 AM
*Subject:* FW: Gas to reach 3 dollars a gallon
>Subject: Gasoline to hit $3
> > > > > > > You guys might really want to pay attention to this as
they are now saying > > that gas is going to hit the $3.00 mark! (Was
on the nightly news 3/9/05). > > > > WHERE TO BUY YOUR GAS, THIS IS
VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. > > > > READ ON-- Gas rationing in the 80's
worked even though we grumbled about > > it. It might even be good for
us! > > > > The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return
the favor. An > > interesting thought it to boycott their GAS. > > > >
Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into
the > > coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that
don't import their > > oil from > > the Saudis. > > > > Nothing is
more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill-up the > >
tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my
family, > > and my > > friends. > > > > > > > > I thought it might be
interesting for you to know which oil companies are > > the best to
buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil : > >
Shell......................... 205,742,000 barrels > >
Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels > > Exxon
/Mobil............. 130,082,000 barrels > > Marathon/Speedway..
117,740,000 barrels > > Amoco....................... 62,231,000
barrels > > > > If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount
to over $18 BILLION! > > > > Here are some large companies that do not
import Middle Eastern oil: > > Citgo.............0 barrels > >
Sunoco.........0 barrels > > Conoco.........0 barrels > >
Sinclair.........0 barrels > > BP/Phillips....0 barrels > >
Hess............0 barrels > > ARC0...........0 barrels > > > > All of
this information is available from the Department of Energy and each >
> is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are
> > importing. > > > > But to have an impact, we need to reach
literally millions of gas buyers. > > It's really simple to do. Now,
don't wimp out at this point... keep reading > > and I'll explain how
simple it is to reach millions of people!! I'm sending > > this note
to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more >
> (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x
10 = > > 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the
sixth generation of > > people, we will have reached over THREE
MILLION consumers! If those three > > million get excited and pass
this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people > > will have been
contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it .... > > THREE
HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! > > > > > > Again, all you have to do is
send this to 10 people. How long would all > > that take? If each of
us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one > > day, all
300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next > >
eight days! > > > > > > > >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.0 - Release Date: 3/31/2005
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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
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