I’m not sure the timing actually works out for that. Arab oil production was significantly behind the United States and Russia during the Second World War, but

I’m not sure the timing actually works out for that. Arab oil production was significantly behind the United States and Russia during the Second World War, but represented a major share of oil production by 1973, as seen in the effects of the embargo imposed in response to the Yom Kippur War. Dune was written in the 1950’s, but the geopolitical metaphors are a few decades older than that; the character of Paul Atreides is clearly a parallel to T.E. Lawrence, which places the geopolitical context firmly within the First World War. That’s a different part of the Middle East (the Levant as opposed to the Hejaz and Gulf), a different strategic value relating to long distance travel (the Suez Canal as opposed to oil), and a much older world of competing colonizers. And not to put too fine a point on it, the Ottomans also had a padishah emperor!