America is beginning the next 100 years, for the first time in history, as the world’s top oil producer. This will have profound implications for the future of US policy, particularly in the Muslim world.
In 2015, the US produced 90% of the energy it consumed, and it is now in a position to become a net exporter of oil rather than an importer. Aside from the obvious revenue boost, this has given America a significant role in controlling the price of oil, which it can use to undermine countries whose economies are dependent almost exclusively on oil export revenues; which means almost all of the members of OPEC.
If America increases supply of oil in the global market, beyond demand, the price collapses; when the price collapses, OPEC nations’ budgets fall apart because they have not diversified their streams of revenue.
In short, the US now has the power to bankrupt Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf. Once they are bankrupt, they will become debtor nations, once they become debtor nations, their subordination to US political agendas which may now be voluntarily offered, will be irresistibly imposed by economic force
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The fracking Revolution in the United States; the technological advance which enables the extraction of oil from dry shale in the earth; represents the beginning of the end of the economic sovereignty of the Arab oil producing nations. The economic conquest of the Arabian Gulf is taking place in Texas, Kansas, Utah, Montana, Arkansas, and Louisiana..