America imported no oil from Venezuela last week.

[MRubio]

2. Indeed it is Socal31

I spent more years than I can to remember in the oilfield. I studied under, and worked for, a guy who was a workmate and disciple of M. King Hubbert at Shell Oil. Are you familiar with Hubbert's name? If not, you've probably heard of his theory, Peak Oil.

Here's his world production curve estimate proposed in 1956.



Won't bore everyone with the gory details, but for a few decades, Hubbert was spot-on with worldwide production topping out in 1970, at least as far as production depending on standard industry practices known to him at the time. Peak Oil theory and the potential ramifications for world economies has now fallen out of favor, but when it's all said and done, I still think his theories of the dramatic dropoff in production will still hold true.