But they are quite welcome to supply oil, he says.
"We have a right not to supply food and oil to people who wage war against us."
The Middle East cannot be relied upon to supply oil to us.
Moreover, it would symbolize a commitment to supply oil over the long term.
It seems likely that we will shortly reach the limits of the world's capacity for supplying oil.
Russia will also be able to extract even greater political concessions in exchange for supplying gas and oil.
Mexico and Venezuela had supplied oil but both stopped deliveries when payments were not made.
Much of the oil supplied by the major exporters is committed months in advance to specific buyers.
If the area pumped one million barrels a day, it could supply oil to the United States for two decades.
But after a while the Yugoslav government took them over, and converted them into agreements to supply oil.