This is interesting in light of the fact that we import virtually no oil from the ME. I'm aware that the low information voters all think that our oil comes from the ME, but most of it is from Venezuela and Canada, these days.
As for the oil "shortage" of the 1980s, it was concocted by the oil companies to drive prices up. My dad worked for the Federal Trade Commission at the time and was assigned to investigate the claims of the oil and gas producers. What he found was oil storage tanks full to overflowing and oil tankers were required to anchor out of sight over the horizon where John Q. Public could not see them because there was no place to offload the oil . However, another FReeper's dad was an airline pilot who flew out of LAX and he saw them parked out of sight.
In the past 6 months, we imported more oil from the Persian Gulf alone, than North Dakato, Alaska and California produced together. The amount is falling, but it is still significant.
U.S. Crude Oil Imports by Country of Origin
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_m.htm
US Crude Oil Production by State
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbblpd_m.htm
Sorry, hit post too soon.
From the same link, you can see we get more oil from Saudi Arabia than from Venezuela and have for some time.