Middle East

Anybody can understand that oil is very important to the world, the production of oil leads to a huge amount of revenue. In most cases oil is both a curse and a blessing, because oil plays a huge part in economy inflation, political tension, and wars. Oil gives out power, rather than money (David Mulholland 2011). Meaning one who posses the oil is able to do as they please with it, and even cutting off anybody who may need it, is a way Mulholland (2011) views what the power of oil can do. If anybody has watched the film Citizen Kane (1941), you would see that Charles Foster Kane, is your ideal man who has principles. Although, that can be changed by wealth, and the power that is has.

First, economic inflation has already begun its “future” of the oil, oil is the cause, and inflation is the effect. For example, if oil prices were to go up, then inflation would follow in the same direction. From our text we know the two largest countries with the biggest production of oil are Saudi Arabia and Iran, because before the discovery of the oil the countries were poor. Since oil was discovered it brought in money into their countries, but also it brought in unwanted guests who wanted the oil. For examples countries like Great Britain or France, any now Russia and the United States, which is the beginning of modern foreign relations. “As the global economy has deteriorated, oil prices have risen. Ordinarily, a growth slowdown would cause a fall, with global energy demand expected to slow or, more accurately, to rise at a slower rate. At the moment, though, there are fears on the supply side, with traders worrying about geopolitics, particularly in the Middle East” (Halligan 2013). Therefore, We have gone through the growth phase in conventional fossil fuel resources and now must dip into our much more expensive-to-produce unconventional resources like tar sands and oil shale. 

Secondly, political tension, “Competition for energy assets will probably not lead to open conflict but rather to increasing political tension” predicted Africa expert Pham (2013). In a recent article that was posted in Middle East Monitor is proof that there is much tension going on because nobody is letting anybody at rest. Libya for instance, reopened their oil port city in Zueitina, it was only one day and already there was already an outburst by a gunman showing up and bombing a car in a nearby city. (Middle East Monitor 2014). Therefore, there is never any peace nor can there be any negotiations because everybody wants the oil, not even a piece or portion but all of it in their power.

Finally, is the wars the oil has caused, the deaths it has brought upon many innocent citizens worldwide. The Bush Administration for example, they wanted to intervene in shifting oil and they wanted to stick close to Iraq’s side because they new that they were in war with Iran in the late 1970s, because Iran had turned against the West (Held & Cummings 2014). All these countries are fighting one another, they join forces and once one is out the way, they try to put out the next competition. When it comes to these wars, all any of these countries see is oil access, the prices, and the revenue that it will bring in for them. From the oil in Texas, President Bush made a huge profit of that (Aarts & Renner 2014).

In conclusion, oil is a blessing for the one who has it, but it’s a cursed because there is always somebody who wants it for themselves for the control. “The OPEC countries worldwide possess 74 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. Those in the Gulf account for 62 percent. The Gulf states’ proven reserves grew from 398 billion barrels in 1985 to 572 billion barrels in 1988, while those of much of the rest of the world barely stayed even, despite huge expenditures on exploration” (Aarts et al 2014). Furthermore, to answer the question if there will be more oil related conflicts in the Middle East? The answer would be yes, because it’s been going on for years and nobody is satisfied. I believe that even if hypothetically speaking that the oil was evenly proportioned out, there will always be that somebody who is not satisfied and wants it all, or if a country ran out of oil, they will eventually need more. There will never be a solution or a happy ending because each country wants the power and ownership of oil, and every country that does posses it has full control over the “needy” countries that want it. For instance, the oil that is imported from the Middle East, 59% of that oil goes to Japan (Aarts et al 2014).

Work Cited:

Aarts, P. Renner, M. (2014) Oil and the Gulf War. Merip.org.