The present controversy is over a 1994 deal in which North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear-weapons programme in return for the supply of fuel oil.
And America, South Korea and Japan agreed jointly to cut off the supply of fuel-oil under a 1994 agreement until it does.
In 1994, North Korea agreed to stop making plutonium, in return for which America and its allies would supply the country with fuel oil and build two Western-designed light-water nuclear reactors (since it is a bit harder to produce weapons-grade materials from such reactors than from the ones North Korea had been building).
On the downside, worry about an oil supply disruption that both pushes fuel costs up while trashing demand for transportation.
At the moment, they are furious about having no say over what amounts to a "tax" levied in the form of extortionate fuel prices driven by the supply-manipulating OPEC oil cartel.
As part of the deal to build the new power plants, America promised to supply 500, 000 tonnes of fuel oil a year to North Korea until the first reactor was completed, in around 2003.
"During the 1973 Arab oil embargo Brazil was importing almost 80 percent of its fuel supply, " notes Mr. Luft, director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
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"It's understandable that some people want to believe in 'energy independence, ' " Cavaney says, noting that 60% of U.S. oil will need to be imported by 2030, even with a diversified fuel supply.
In 2010, oil companies were under legal mandate to blend 12 billion gallons of ethanol into the fuel supply.
Any gasoline or other fuel-supply crunches probably will be isolated, said Andrew Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates.
We also have huge land and offshore oil reserves vital for transportation fuel, including enormous amounts contained along with gas in oil shale deposits amounting to several hundred years of supply.
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First, an oil-supply shock resulting from an Iranian crisis, say would send fuel prices sharply up again and wipe out profits.
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The oil industry is legally obligated to blend more than 12.5 billion gallons of ethanol into the fuel supply in 2011 (increasing to 15 billion gallons in 2015) even if the tax credit expires as scheduled at the end of the year.
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