Industrialized nations like the United States depend on oil to power their factories.
Some nations have a great deal of petroleum reserves, while other nations have none.
More than forty percent of the world's oil reserves are spaced unevenly among the nations of the Middle East and North Africa. America's relationship with the Middle East and North Africa has changed since the discovery of oil in the region. In 1960, many of the oil producing nations agreed to form a cartel. A cartel is an international organization formed to regulate prices and production. American gasoline prices more than doubled and people waited for gasoline in lines sometimes over a mile long.