Roger J. Stern at Princeton estimated that the U.S. has spent $8 trillion on armed forces to protect oil flows from Saudi Arabia from 1977 to 2010. See here and here. That’s roughly $200 billion a year. The U.S. imports about 3 billion barrels of oil from all countries, of which 1/3 is from OPEC countries and 1/3 of that OPEC amount comes from Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we are spending $200 billion a year to protect 3 billion barrels of oil, or $67 a barrel — and that’s for all oil from all sources anywhere in the world, on the … Continue reading Costs to Americans of Protecting Saudi Oil Flows