Canada (1.9 MMBD)
Saudi Arabia (1.6 MMBD)
Mexico (1.5 MMBD)
Venezuela (1.4 MMBD).

Frankly, I’d almost rather get it from the Saudis, if the goal was purely ensuring a stable supply that we won’t be blackmailed with. Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela all have a tendency to be governed by parties and factions that historically draw a lot of their popular clout from rubbing America’s nose in the dirt. They’re as bad as France and Germany in that regard.

Consider the recent AP story headlined Canada uses China’s oil thirst as leverage in trade dispute with U.S. over lumber

Canada can just turn around and sell to China and cut us off, and they’re perfectly willing to talk openly in those terms.

Yet analysts on both sides of the border say the new angle of playing the China card is mostly posturing ahead of elections faced by Martin’s minority government early next year. Canadians love to rail against U.S. global dominance and take great pride in their politicians standing up to Washington.

“Now that the U.S. sees China poking its nose around Canada’s oil sands, we have the White House’s attention,” one Canadian expert crowed.

If they’re willing to play the China card now over a relatively minor matter like a lumber tariff, what will happen down the road?

Note, though, that though Canada is the leading supplier of crude and refined oil products to the United States, it provides only 10 percent of the oil consumed by Americans each year.

A second point is, America is a lot less reliant right now on Persian Gulf oil than are the other major industrialized regions of the world — our competitors in Europe and Asia.

Asia now takes over 40% of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports, as well as the majority of its refined petroleum product exports. The United States is Saudi Arabia’s second largest oil export market, followed by OECD Europe. During 2002, Saudi Arabia’s share of U.S. crude oil imports was 16.8%, down from 17.3% during 2001. OECD Europe got 30% of its oil imports from Persian Gulf sources (2.406 MMBD).

So in expending American lives and resources to ensure the flow of Middle Eastern oil, we subsidize the economies of nations that not only compete against American economic interests, they mock and disdain the American military efforts that keep the oil flowing. Hypocrites.

From the Department of Energy: Total Imports of Petroleum Top 15 Countries (Thousand Barrels per Day) Country………YTD 2005 CANADA……….2,116 MEXICO……….1,657 SAUDI ARABIA *..1,594 VENEZUELA…….1,575 NIGERIA*………1,127 IRAQ *……