From the article: Fact: Just 9.2% of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from the Middle East. That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible. Thanks to the

From the article: Fact: Just 9.2% of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from the Middle East. That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible. Thanks to the arbitrage guys, a barrel of oil sells for one price worldwide. That means that a severe shortage in one oil-exporting country can have large effects on the price of oil everywhere else. I don't have enough expertise to argue with the other claims, but if the author misses an important point like the fungibility of commodities, then I will be agnostic about the rest of the article.