Tom Fudge: Where does the United States get its imported oil? From the Middle East? Well, here's the list of our top four importers: Canada is number one, followed by Saudi Arabia, Mexico is number three, and Venezuela is our fourth largest foreign oil source.
It's that number four country that seems to be causing us an awful lot of trouble. In fact, in recent months Venezuela has threatened to stop exporting oil to the U.S. This is the result of many years of tense relations between our countries. The latest flap involves Venezuela's effort to nationalize large parts of the oil industry that operates in the country.
Government officials have seized property owned by many huge companies, including Chevron , ConocoPhillips , and ExxonMobil . Exxon has put up the biggest fight, and has sued Venezuela in international court. What will come of the conflict between Exxon and the South American country may not matter that much to most Americans, but if Venezuela really does cut off its oil supply from the United States, the consequences could be dramatic.
Guest
- Jeremy Martin, director of the Energy Program at the Institute of the Americas at UCSD .
