U.S. Oil Boom Shifts Alliance as Obama Visits Saudi King
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When Barack Obama sits down tomorrow with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, he’ll do so knowing the U.S. is importing the least crude in two decades, a shift changing America’s strongest relationship in the Arab world.
Five years after Obama’s first visit to Riyadh, the drilling of shale oil fields from North Dakota to Texas has put the U.S. on the path to energy independence, weakening economic interdependence between the two nations as they work through disagreements on Syria and Iran.