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Saudi Arabia, gasoline, and Tesla

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The middle east has been on a high rise building binge with our oil money for years. Most of the construction workers come from countries like the Philippines and they are treated like slaves. Safety is an after thought on the construction sites.

How does Saudi Arabia treat women?
 
Canada has overtaken Saudi Arabia as a source of oil to the US in the last 10 years, but over the last 50 years vastly more oil has come from Saudi Arabia than Canada. The US still imports more oil from OPEC countries than Canada.

However none of that matters, the market for oil is global. The US is still the country that consumes the most oil. The country that contributes the most to the demand is the most responsible for what the oil profits do.
 
Oil is a fungible, global commodity. Where you "get" yours from matters very little as it is all, ultimately, in the same market. That said, I buy Sinclair for my ice powered things because theirs is all "from" N America. BUT I realize that changes nothing in the global supply/demand equation. It's all connected. Gas is gross

ha! richkae beat me to it :smile:
 
Yes, we get more oil from Canada than any other single nation and we domestically produce most of our oil. However, of the imports, Saudi Arabia is still 9.3%, OPEC is 29.5%, and Canada 38.8% (October 2014)

U.S. Total Crude Oil and Products Imports

OPEC, and Saudi Arabia being the leader, still commands a significant influence. The wealth being transferred to OPEC nations is tremendous and will have long lasting effects. The oil economy makes the U.S. do things that it probably doesn't want to do, and probably shouldn't do. It makes the U.S. prioritize stability in the middle east over morality, freedom, and justice. We will always need oil, but hopefully we can stop burning it and we can produce the remaining oil needs through other means than drilling for it (algae for example).
 
So I read previously that the lower gas prices are being minipulated by Saudi Arabia, if we only get 10% of our oil from them how does that affect our gas prices. What am I missing here.
Because oil is a GLOBAL commodity. You need to look at the global picture, not just the US to see the cause and effect of oil prices. If US sourced oil could command a much higher price elsewhere, it would be exported, real fast.
 
Saudi Arabia and a couple of the emirates are the minimum cost producers of oil, which makes them very significant in the global market. It also means they take home the most *profits* from oil sales. The maximum cost producers are also significant, because they are the ones who are driven out of the market when demand drops. Markets are complicated that way.
 
It's not just oil. Countries around the world support governments that give them access to valuable resources. When foreign aid is upped to a country, supposedly because of human rights reforms, don't be surprised to find that they haven't really improved much, and it's really because a country's in competition with China's laissez faire approach to aid.

The key with oil is that it's a consumable running transportation systems, the military and some power grids, so countries could grind to a halt quickly without it, which means their governments are very forgiving in their approach. Dependency on a consumable is part of the eagerness of nations to electrify. (There are a bunch of other benefits, of course.)
 
So I read previously that the lower gas prices are being minipulated by Saudi Arabia, if we only get 10% of our oil from them how does that affect our gas prices. What am I missing here.

Even if we imported none of our oil from Saudi Arabia, their oil production affects our pricing and therefore our economy and our security. From the EIA:

Saudi Arabia has 16% of the world's proved oil reserves, is the largest exporter of total petroleum liquids in the world, and maintains the world's largest crude oil production capacity

Saudi Arabia - Analysis - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

As long as we have a huge dependence on oil, even if it is our own, Saudi Arabia will have a big influence.
 
Just because only some of gasoline purchase go towards Saudi Arabia, Iran, Isis, etc doesn't mean none of it does.

There are many reasons my wife and I are closing in on 100,000 Tesla miles.

One of those is that we choose to send ZERO of our fuel money to OPEC, ZERO of it to ISIS, ZERO of it to Iran.
We choose to not allow any of our fuel costs to add to our trade deficit and ALL of those fuel costs to add to the local/regional economy.

Sending a little money to our opponents is better than sending a lot.
Sending none, is better than sending a little.
 
Even if we imported none of our oil from Saudi Arabia, their oil production affects our pricing and therefore our economy and our security. From the EIA:



Saudi Arabia - Analysis - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

As long as we have a huge dependence on oil, even if it is our own, Saudi Arabia will have a big influence.

Exactly. That's why the dependance on oil has got to be avoided. So this matter not only is concerning the Climate Change/Global Warming issue but also a much broader issue of International Politics.
 
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Just because only some of gasoline purchase go towards Saudi Arabia, Iran, Isis, etc doesn't mean none of it does.

There are many reasons my wife and I are closing in on 100,000 Tesla miles.

One of those is that we choose to send ZERO of our fuel money to OPEC, ZERO of it to ISIS, ZERO of it to Iran.
We choose to not allow any of our fuel costs to add to our trade deficit and ALL of those fuel costs to add to the local/regional economy.

Sending a little money to our opponents is better than sending a lot.
Sending none, is better than sending a little.

Well said.