Gas station sells ' no Middle East' oil products

Many people believe the US depends too much on Middle Eastern oil, but is there anything you can do about it? <br/><br/>One Skiatook gas station thinks you can and as News on 6 business reporter Steve

Wednesday, August 17th 2005, 9:53 am

By: News On 6

Many people believe the US depends too much on Middle Eastern oil, but is there anything you can do about it?

One Skiatook gas station thinks you can and as News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg explains, they've used it as a marketing tool.

The sign has proved attention getting. At the Mr. Bass Sinclair Station west of Skiatook, they say it's been pretty popular since they put it up 3 months ago. "We've had a lot of people stop and take pictures of the sign." Store employee Carla Gaddy says they've also handed out sheets that say where different gasoline companies get their crude oil. "We put out I don't know how many of those papers, we can even keep them in the store."

The US Department of Energy reports Sinclair doesn't import any oil from the Persian Gulf. We talked to Sinclair headquarters which says most of the oil that winds up in its refineries is from the US and Canada.

But if you wanted to nit-pick, they say a small percentage of other oil, single digits gets mixed in from other countries, because oil tank farms don't completely empty one company's oil, before another company's comes in. So as near as we can tell, the information is accurate.

Reaction from people the News on 6 talked to varied, some think it's great. Clyde Smith: "I think it's a good deal, I really do. I think we should take more care of ourselves than give it all off to somebody else."

While others just don't care. Sel Johnson: "It just doesn't matter, that's all."

But for many the politics of Middle Eastern oil are volatile. Chelsey Williams: "They're killing us; they don't want to give us their oil. Our airlines are going down and our gas prices are going up." Still, economics can cloud the oil picture too. "Whatever's cheapest, that's what Iâ€™m going to do."

If you'd like to learn more about the nation's gasoline supply and where it comes from, you can check out the Department of Energy's web site.