Once self-sufficient in oil, it has been a net importer since 1993 and today faces a widening oil deficit as demand outstrips supply.
While the Kurdish areas are safer than the rest of Iraq, roughly half the nation's postwar oil production deficit is traced to the very area where the wildcats are drilling.
Thanks to high oil prices, America's trade deficit widened in January (see chart), but if oil is excluded, the deficit is shrinking fast.
But in the absence of fiscal tightening that significantly cuts the non-oil and gas fiscal deficit, a severe and sustained drop in the oil price would have a damaging impact on the Russian economy and public finances and would likely lead to a downgrade, Fitch warned.
Some people are saying that we should be selling oil to reduce our budget deficit and (perhaps) drive down the price of oil.
Even Saudi Arabia needs to increase its oil quotas to fund its deficit spending.
While Scotland's public spending levels at present would require all of the oil revenues it can expect from oil, and still leaves a significant government deficit, there is a warning that an independent Scottish government should make cautious budget assumptions about oil revenues when they are so volatile.
Without oil revenues, Russia will run a deficit of around 11% of GDP in 2012.
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As for the current position, Scotland's fiscal balance still requires all its oil and gas revenues to keep its deficit to 5% of gross domestic product.
The shut down has resulted in higher energy costs and a rise in Japan's imports of energy sources such as oil and natural gas, widening its trade deficit.
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The U.S. has a trade deficit with all of its top 5 oil producing trading partners.
America, of course, still imports a massive amount of foreign oil and runs a substantial energy-related trade deficit.
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Recent declines in gold and oil, if sustained, could continue helping this deficit problem in the coming months, Barclays Capital analysts led by Siddhartha Sanyal said today.
In some years, imports of oil have accounted for more than half of that deficit, so one way to take a hammer to the trade deficit would be to crank up domestic production.
China accounts for a fifth of India's overall trade deficit with the world, over half if oil is excluded.
After a decade of rising oil prices and budget surpluses, Russia is running a deficit and looking to borrow money.
Oil is the single item that contributes most to the deficit, but it is not the main source of the deficit.
Oil is, of course, another contributing factor to the deficit.
India, which faces a huge energy deficit and imports about 80% of its crude oil requirements, is scouting for hydrocarbon assets that can boost its energy security in the long term.
China runs a deficit with most of its trading partners, which supply oil, other raw materials and industrial components, and makes up for it by running large surpluses with its U.S. and European export markets.
We are running a trade deficit of over half a trillion dollars per year to import oil.
Mr Chavez accepts that the fiscal deficit is a problem, ever worse as the price of oil slides.
Analysts say much of Japan's trade deficit comes from increased importation and prices for natural gas and oil, which has increased in use since much of the nation's nuclear power supply has been taken offline.
The deficit grew 33% for the year, pushed up by rising oil prices abroad.
Yesterday, the Commerce Department said that deficit surged to a new high, partly because of a jump in oil imports.
India is getting whacked by high oil prices and needs foreign capital to pay its obligations as it runs an account deficit.
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The deficit is on the rise again, fuelled by Indonesia's ruinously generous oil subsidies.
Despite this looming deficit and the glaring price signal, all the big companies except Total produced less oil and gas in the third quarter than they did in the same period last year.
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