From the 1920s to the 1940s, the United States, Mexico and Venezuela in the Gulf of Mexico in North America were the main bases for oil exports.

The United States is the world's largest energy country, with total oil reserves accounting for 2.9% of the world's total and natural gas reserves accounting for 3.3% of the world's total.

The United States is the largest energy consumer. In the second half of the 1990s, its primary energy consumption exceeded 2 billion tons of oil equivalent, accounting for 24% of the world's total consumption.

Nowadays, a large amount of crude oil from Venezuela and Mexico flows to the United States, which has begun to change the geographical distribution of world oil trade.

So far, in addition to self-produced oil, the United States imports more than half of its consumption every year, making it the world's largest oil importer.

Imported oil mainly comes from the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, accounting for about 2/3 of oil imports. In addition, some are also imported from Latin America and Canada.

As the world's energy demand increases and people's awareness of environmental protection increases, natural gas is becoming a favored energy source due to its unique advantages.

The U.S. Oil and Gas Magazine once reported that market analysts predict that U.S. natural gas consumption will increase from the current 580 billion cubic meters to more than 800 billion cubic meters in 2010.

Importing energy from the Persian Gulf and Latin American countries is a priority development direction of the United States' foreign energy policy. Under its unilateral guidance, it launched the Iraq War for oil.

After the Iraq War, the turbulent Gulf and the ever-changing Latin America have prompted a diversified trend in U.S. energy diplomacy.

The basic goals of U.S. energy foreign policy are: "While consolidating and developing the global energy security system, improve U.S. energy security; secondly, preserve U.S. energy." The U.S. ranks "securing corresponding energy production bases" only after preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Below, we can see that the United States attaches great importance to energy.

The United States not only shares the same interests with Western developed countries in importing energy, but is also a leader in coordinating energy policies among Western developed countries.

The 2002 Russia-US summit issued the "Statement on a New Round of Energy Dialogue," marking a new stage of Russian-US energy cooperation.

1. U.S. policy in the Middle East and Greater Central Asia around the Caspian Sea and its competition with Russia. The United States regards the Caspian Sea region as equally important as the Persian Gulf, and includes the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in its strategic interests.

The Caspian Sea has more than 20 billion tons of oil reserves and 18 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, making it the second largest oil and gas production area after the Persian Gulf. The United States regards the oil and gas in the Caspian Sea region as being able to maintain the stability of the world oil market in the first half of the 21st century.

Key factor.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, etc. are all important countries in the region.

The United States believes that Azerbaijan is of very important strategic significance.

Therefore, the United States plans to introduce Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe, supply natural gas to Europe, and break Russia's monopoly.

In addition, the United States also wants to break Russia's monopoly on natural gas supply to Europe and plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Turkey to introduce Azerbaijani natural gas into southern and central Europe.

The United States uses its old and new local allies: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf to connect the two major oil and gas areas, cooperating with and competing with Russia.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran and Russia, two natural gas giants, could establish an Organization of Gas Exporting Countries similar to OPEC.

Iran proposed the creation of a "gas OPEC" initiative, which received Putin's response.

When Putin visited Qatar in 2007, he stated that natural gas exporting countries must coordinate each other's actions and would not oppose the establishment of a "gas OPEC" similar to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"Gas OPEC" has not yet been established, but has decided to establish a high-level committee to coordinate future cooperation among the forum members in the field of natural gas.

In response to Russia's recent attempts to monopolize energy, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new bill authorizing the government to sue the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and similar organizations for price manipulation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately criticized the bill, saying it violated the norms of international law.

The United States has its own energy interests and geostrategic interests in the Middle East, the Caspian Sea, and Greater Central Asia. It also supports assisting the CIS countries in the region to get rid of Russian control and prevent Russia from monopolizing the world's oil and gas prices and the direction of oil and gas pipelines.

This region contains the world’s first and second largest oil and gas producing areas, so the Middle East and the Caspian Sea and Greater Central Asia are the most important areas for Russia and the United States to compete for energy hegemony, and the competition for hegemony in this region will continue.

After the "9·11" incident, the United States had an advantage in the region and had a successful advantage in assisting the "color revolution" launched by the opposition in the CIS countries. However, Russia is currently making full use of the oil and gas in its hands to launch an energy diplomacy offensive.

For the time being, it has not challenged OPEC's status. Instead, it has used its common interests with these countries to own oil and gas resources to form alliances with these countries. Coupled with the economic difficulties of the CIS countries in the region, they are eager to export energy to alleviate their economic difficulties.

The oil and gas pipelines built during the Soviet period have made Russia the energy hegemon it is today, and have also made it difficult for the CIS countries in the region to escape Russia's control for the time being.

Although the Russian economy continues to grow, the shortage of funds is the biggest difficulty Russia faces.

Therefore, in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea and Greater Central Asia, Russia also needs U.S. funds to invest in oil and gas development and pipeline construction.