Buy Gas From Sunoco and Shell
An email about improving gas mileage has been making the rounds. It made me question where my gas comes from. I want to avoid sending my money to the Middle East. It turns out it is possible with a little care.
The DOE has some helpful data. Only 17% of U.S. oil imports come from the Persian Gulf. 50% comes from the Western Hemisphere. They just published data from 2007 that shows how much oil each company imported from the Middle East in a report called “Crude Oil Imports From Persian Gulf 2007“.
The bottom line here is that I will do my best to buy gas only from Shell and Sunoco who import very little to no oil from the Middle East. Exxon Mobile imported a huge amount of oil from the Middle East and will be avoided.
Update: it looks like Citgo is one of the good companies as well.
March 24, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Since I work for a company owned by Saudi Arabia and am treated very well I will only by gas from Exxon - thanks for the tip
March 24, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Joe, you are clearly an idiot and out of touch with world events. See this for example
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/05/20/notes052005.DTL&nl=fix.
March 24, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I also avoid Citgo, since it’s 50% owned by the Venezuelan gov’t .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo
I have used Exxon and by extension Exxon-Mobil as little as possible since/becasue of Exxon Valdez.
March 24, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Alan,
I appreciate the personal insults, they always add so much to a discussion.
So you would buy from Sunoco which gets there oil from Nigeria - ah wonderful Nigeria, safe haven for much of the heroin that comes into the US and a country complicit in durg and organized crime money laundering - Organized crime has killed far more Americans than terrorism. And the death heroin deals speaks for itself.
Of course Nigeria has been our friend for a long time now - what was it, 1999 that we finally re-established relations with them and ended all of our sanctions because of human rights abuse? 9 years is a long time, they are a solid friend.
Or maybe you don’t like Muslims? Well Nigeria is a bit better than Saudi Arabia in that only slightly more than half are Muslim.
I do applaud you for voting with your dollar, that is the way capitalism works best - perhaps you should open your eyes to more than one issue - talk about out of touch.
March 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I admit I didn’t know Sunoco gets their oil from Nigeria. As far as I can tell, the US gets less than 10% of our oil from Nigeria. You can hardly call me out of touch for not knowing that. There is a big difference between not knowing obscure facts about oil companies and not knowing about Saudi Arabia’s support for terrorism.
I retract my insult and apologize for it. I am sure you are not an idiot.
Your overt support for Saudi Arabia is idiotic.
March 25, 2008 at 9:51 am
Alan,
My point is that if you are going to vote with your dollar you should know what you are voting for or against. While you do not wish to support the Saudi government, you don’t take the time to figure out what you are supporting and if it is better or worse - that is hardly chasing down “obscure facts” The Saudi government has been prowestern in it’s stance and an ally against even more radical Mideast countries. Admittedly they do an inadequate job of fighting internal terrorism, I think the kingdom is walking a precarious line.
So you support Shell? Shell has MAJOR investments in Iran - The Iranian government overtly supports terrorism and opposes the US at every turn. Chevron, by the way, actually imports or is about to, Iranian oil.
Out of all the major oil players the Saudi’s are among the most supportive of the US and we should leverage our commercial relationships to change their behavior. If you chose to “vote with your dollar” and avoid supporting them, fine - just realize who you are supporting.
Things are never crystal clear, it’s like the people who buy GM to save US jobs when GM builds very few cars in the US and uses very few US parts. Far better to buy a Toyota which has 10 US factories and is building more.
March 25, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Sadly, the best choice is to use less gas.