The world is hooked on oil, with the US as its main guzzler. America is 7.5 billion barrels a year thirsty of it, and imports more than half of its oil needs. Wars are fought over oil. The US went to war in Iraq to cordon off Saudi Arabia oil where the world’s largest oil field is now being constructed. No need for war in the Middle East now. Saudi oil is more than spoken for. There was even another scare a while back about something they call ‘peak oil,’ alarming the world that oil reserves will soon dry up. The alarmist propaganda paid off, though only for a short while. The price of Dubai crude shot up to over $140 per barrel last summer. But that’s just about it. Dubai crude is now less than $40 a barrel. So much for paranoid attacks.

Fact is only 10 countries in the whole wide world is blessed with 81 percent of total usable oil. Or what has been discovered in oil fields, that is. But more than discovery, it’s all about access. A small country in the Pacific Ocean may actually have oil under its territorial waters but it’s incapable of getting it. So, the next best thing is for oil multinationals to extract and process it. Oil won’t get up to the surface unless it’s pumped out. In some cases, water is injected to force the oil up. In the case of oil being embedded in tar sands such as that in Canada, steam needs to be injected to liquefy the oil before it can even be extracted.

Here’s how the pie is divided among the 10 oil-owning countries in relation to the 81 percent of discovered usable oil. Nigeria owns 2.5 percent. Libya is at 3 percent. Russia has 5 percent. Venezuela comes in slightly higher at 5.6 percent. Both the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait hold 7 percent each. Iraq owns 8 percent, while Iran corners 10 percent. Canada has 13 percent, but is caught up in oil sands. The most coveted supply is found in Saudi Arabia, of course, and it comes at 20 percent of total usable oil. Ever wonder why a self-avowed champion of democracy such as the US finds itself supporting an authoritarian regime such as that of Saudi Arabia? There’s no mystery, really.

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Via Live Science