Losing two Gulf oil producers barely moved world oil prices.

Evidence

Another widely held belief now proved to be false is that war in the Gulf would disrupt the flow of oil, and cause major upheavals in the world. Nothing of the kind happened. Two major suppliers of oil have virtually ceased to function—Kuwait, because of Iraqi sabotage, and Iraq, because of U.N. sanctions. All this appears to have had no discernible effect on the supply of oil, or even on prices, which if anything have fallen slightly. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1723

Categorization

• XREF: Against the deep-seated Western/Middle-Eastern axiom that controlling Middle East oil equals world leverage — relevant to Said-adjacent readings of how oil is narrated as existential Western dependency.