re: is the price per barrel of oil dropping a bad thing?

quote:

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In 2013, about 33% of the petroleum consumed by the United States was imported from foreign countries.

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EIA

Of that portion of imported oil only 20% was from Persian Gulf countries. That amounts for a whopping 6.6% of the petroleum products consumed by Americans coming from the "Middle East". Most of the oil and gas that we consume comes from the US and Canada. These low oil prices are helping the consumer but the money we aren't spending at the pump is affecting the domestic industry/worker more.

And the drop in price will discourage domestic drilling and production operations more so than those operations in the Middle East (our lifting costs and therefore breakeven point are much higher than those countries). Lower domestic production = more oil imported (see the early 2000s) and more money going to those foreign sources.

To sum it up, low oil prices will hurt the US industry and US energy independence more than it will hurt Saudi Arabia.