Oil: It's business as usual

"With US consumption projected to increase a third over the next 20 years - two-thirds of which will be imported by 2020 - the name of the game is reserves. The bulk of those reserves lie in the Middle East. Among Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the Persian Gulf states control 65 percent of the world's reserves, or close to 600 billion barrels. In comparison, the US reserves are a little under 23 billion.
Whoever controls these reserves in essence controls the world's economy. Consider for a moment if the US were to use its power in the Middle East and its growing influence in Central Asia to tighten oil supplies to the exploding Chinese economy.
China currently uses only 8 percent of the world's oil, and accounts for 37 percent of consumption growth.
Lest anyone think this scenario is paranoid, try rereading Bush's June 2002 West Point speech, which clearly states that the US will not allow the development of any "peer competitors" in the world. That is what Cheney's energy-policy group meant by making "energy security a cornerstone of US trade and foreign policy".
So what does this have to do with Israel and the occupied territories? Israel may not have any oil, but it is the most powerful player in the Middle East. In the great chess game that constitutes oil politics, there are only two pieces left on the board that might check US plans to control the Middle East's oil reserves: Syria and Iran."