Hi, I'm Denise, and this is your civic minute.
In January, the U.S. invaded Venezuela, a country with the largest oil reserves on Earth.
Gas prices that week, $2.81, they barely moved because, despite all those reserves, Venezuela
produces less than 1% of the world's oil.
Reserves don't set prices, production does.
Then the U.S. and Israel struck Iran.
Iran choked off the strait of hormones and roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply
stopped flowing.
Crew prices jumped 45% gas shot past $4.
Here's the thing, 80% of that oil was headed for Asia, not the United States.
We get almost none of our oil from the Persian Gulf, but it didn't matter.
Oil was priced on a world market.
When supply drops anywhere, prices rise everywhere, including at your gas station.
That's what global commodity means, and no amount of drilling changes it.
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