Who holds the true power in the oil game?

A full OPEC boycott would certainly hurt but there are several other countries that can supply oil too so a OPEC style boycott would have to include countries like Canada, the UK, Russia and Venezuela to be effective. Getting all those countries on board wouldn't be a simple task.

If the U.S., Germany and Japan decided together that they wouldn't buy oil from say... Iran, their economy wouldn't just be hurt. It would come to a full stop. Most of the mid-East oil exporting countries don't have many other natural resources and they live hand-to-mouth off of their oil incomes. These are countries that rely on daily shipments of food (in some cases even drinking water) and materials that they have to pay for. Without the oil income they can't feed their own populations and their government structures are already much more fragile than in the importing countries.

Venezuela is part of OPEC and already Hugo Chavez has expressed some hostility against the Americans. Countries like Canada, UK, Russia and all other non-OPEC countries would not even come close to making enough oil to support US, Japan and Germany. China and Japan are the main figures going for the Russian oil US will even have a strong chance to make up the loss from non-opec countries if they get boycotted. Also the price would be incredibly high.

I also see your point of view and I am sure you are right but I need to debate this issue in class (I am on the side of a economic collapse if they are boycotted) so I came here to see what kind of issues people will probably bring up so I can prepare myself .

Feel free to discuss some more

I'm guessing it really depends on which country you're talking about. The countries that supply the most oil to US etc. would have the most power. The less oil a country exports, the less power it will have.

If we went to a alcohol and coal economy we wouldent have to worry about oil for hundereds of years. Something the oil companies and our present government dosent want to contemplate.

Not buying from select supliers of oil wouldn't work, unless all consumers were in on it, it would acomplish nothing but a change in the trade routes, with supertanker stocs skyrocketing.

Not purchasing oil at all would be more painfull for the consumer than for suppliers, they would coordinate cuts in production trough OPEC to keep the price from dropping, and share the loss of revenues. An embargo would have more of an effect.

If one of the major oil exporters cut all exports it would wreck havoc on the world economy and obliterate its own.

Still, I'd say that supliers have the upper hand, unless you expand "the oil game" to include all out invasions.

Canada supplies most of the oil to the U.S.

the oil-shock of the 70's was just that : a shock. it did no permanent damage to the ecomies of the energy consuming countries. indded, it has ben shown that industries have become much smarter in their use of energy and many - if not all - have become much stronger in the process . it also spurred the development of other means of energy production greatly.
i suppose it's somewhat like being put on a diet and starting to exercise after having neclected your body and lifestyle for some time. suddenly the body has much more energy than before. hbg