1

Crude Oil Resources Conflict and Global Domination

Student’s Name

Department, College/University

Course Number and Name

Instructor’s Name

Assignment Due Date

 2

Crude Oil Resources Conflict and Global Domination

The ability to tap and use variant types of energy has altered the living conditions of

billions of individuals since the industrial revolution, enabling them to enjoy new levels of

comfort and mobility while also allowing them to engage in more productive tasks. Continuous

increases in energy utilization have been closely linked to rising levels of income and economic

opportunity in a broad section of the world over the better part of two centuries. However,

humanity is now faced with a major energy crisis (Pal, & Mitra, 2018). This is a significant

problem in at least two respects. Energy access, on the other hand, continues to divide the

wealthy and poor nations. A large part of the world's population, over 3 billion people, according

to some estimates still have limited access to energy resources.

Since the conclusion of World War II, global oil politics has been rather unpredictable.

This is because control of the oil market is critical to the world powers' standing on the global

political economy's stage. In a nutshell, whomever controls the oil owns everything. The United

States now leads the world in crude oil production, followed by Saudi Arabia as well as Russia.

Despite the presence of the long-standing OPEC, the United States continues to have a major

impact on global oil politics. Instead of using the word "dominant," it is more accurate to say that

the US's position allows it to "rebalance" global oil geopolitics away from a single organization

or country's control. The Middle East as well as North Africa have two-thirds of the planet's oil

reserves, as demonstrated by the region's key military bases. This was the main reason the US

established an interest in the area decades ago, often at the cost of oil producers.

Noting the US's track record in terms of oil power, all US presidents, from Nixon to

Donald Trump, have been adamant on achieving energy independence for the US. Even Saudi

Arabia, OPEC's core force, cannot produce as much oil as the US (Pal, & Mitra, 2018).
 3

Nonetheless, one should not overlook the fact that OPEC remains strong and important in terms

of exercising influence over the global oil political economy, owing to its ownership of 80

percent of global oil reserves.

OPEC countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, are continuously vying for dominance and

supremacy in the oil price market with the United States and Russia. OPEC has adopted a

number of steps in recent years to raise oil prices by decreasing output in all member nations.

Additionally, OPEC and Russia agreed to cut oil output in order to boost oil prices in 2019,

despite Moscow's initial opposition. The campaign was successful in raising oil prices in 2019

and 2020.

Nevertheless, the group's influence in global oil politics has diminished due to a variety

of internal factors, including the region's ongoing political instability, political disputes among

OPEC members, and a significant increase in US shale oil production in recent years.

Furthermore, the rise of non-OPEC oil producing nations such as Canada as well as China has

weakened OPEC's bargaining power in the oil market (Venn, 2016).Additionally, the US has

consistently contributed to global oil production growth in the years after the "US Shale

Revolution." One may notice that the US is presently benefiting from its increasing influence in

global energy politics. For example, the Robust Strauss Centre for International Security and

Law stated that the US's sanctions on Iran and Venezuela led to the rise in oil prices in 2018 and

2019 (Peng, 2020). The United States' large output of oil and petroleum helps its domestic

economic development.

The availability of crude oil in a country has a direct impact on its economic development

and the capacity of that country to donate resources to its military establishments. Oil is a

significant source of global energy and is critical to a country's economic growth and
 4

development. This is apparent in the way a nation that exports manages its sales in order to

obtain much greater profits. Military facilities are capable of collecting contributions from the

profits of the sale of oil; these donations assist to bolster their operations by enabling them to

acquire cutting-edge weaponry. As a result, it is reasonable to suppose that nations possessing

crude oil deposits may conquer the world if no laws governing them are enacted.
 5

References

Pal, D., & Mitra, S. K. (2018). Interdependence between crude oil and world food prices: A

detrended cross correlation analysis. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its

Applications, 492, 1032-1044.

Peng, J., Li, Z., & Drakeford, B. M. (2020). Dynamic characteristics of crude oil price

fluctuation—from the perspective of crude oil price influence

mechanism. Energies, 13(17), 4465.

Venn, F. (2016). The oil crisis. Routledge.