dave: re 'if one is a true conspiracy theorist, one would suggest that the US govt. and allies don't want to cross the hand that feeds the world oil hunger.'
Saudi Arabia produces oil; they do not control the distribution of same. Distribution is the chokepoint of oil/gas availability, just exactly as JDRockefeller figured-out. His control of distribution meant that many of the other producers had to pay JDR to ship their product.
For just one example, his drawback arrangement with The Pennsylvania Railroad resulted in ANY shipper of oil on the Pennsy paying a rate to the Pennsy, which then secretly paid a percentage of the rate to Standard Oil Co. This and other strategies, like dominationg the transport of oil via pipelenes, forwarded the power of the JDR's oil trust.