askchapo

Saudi Arabia isn't the only nation with a lever to pull which can manipulate global fossil fuel markets. The US also has a lever and is the largest producer on earth, able to punish nations like Saudi Arabia whose entire economy depends on oil being profitable enough and whose oil infrastructure is the only thing they have that can bring income into their nations. This is exactly what the US has been doing under the Biden administration, pushing its own oil production to record levels higher than any other nation in the history of the world while stroking instability (wars, coups) in oil production regions of the world. Remember that the US has the capacity to produce enough oil to meet its own domestic and export needs while maintaining the ability to start destroying the oil infrastructure of smaller nations. What makes the US different from other major petroleum producers is the US government can only increase their own production (or blow up other nations production capacity) while most other governments maintain the ability to decrease their own oil production rather than merely increasing it.

Everyone thinks about gulf states when it comes to oil production but the US is actually the largest player in petroleum. The US can produce more than enough oil domestically to meet its own needs, international markets only effect the US domestic price of fuel because the US government allows their oil companies to maximize profits within reason. Those US firms like Exxon and Chevron understand this, that there are unspoken limits. The US cares about nations like Saudi Arabia to ensure oil prices on the international market stay high enough for US oil firms to be profitable but still within enough reason that the US government can maintain the pretense of free market economics.

This is also why many people who say US wars are about oil are still wrong. They tend to believe the US destroyed Iraq or Libya because they wanted cheap oil, when the real reason was to control global supply and ensure US oil stays profitable. The two levers are increasing US domestic oil production or ordering the US military/CIA to destroy the oil production infrastructure of nations who don't play ball.