Given that, is the NOPEC thing serious, and if so, why would people propose it knowing how critical the Saudi relationship is?
Since the US shale oil revolution, the US is essentially energy independent.
Basically all that is left is that Iran is more poisonous in US politics than Saudi Arabia for reasons that relate to the Iranian revolution and the - moderately reasonable - fears that Israel has of Iran.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/investing/saudi-arabia-oi...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_consu...
The US exports 3.6 million barrels of crude oil per day for other countries to blend with lower grade crude, making it easier to refine. The US happens to have some of the best crude oil for this purpose.
The US is also the world's largest refiner of petroleum, and the world's largest exporter of refined petroleum products. Many countries do not have the capacity necessary to refine crude oil. The US buys foreign crude oil, refines it, and then exports the refined products back to those and other countries.
You can't just look at crude oil imports in isolation to determine if the US is a net importer or not. In fact, the US has been a net exporter of total petroleum products for several years now due to both its increased production and critical role in global crude oil refining.
The refineries on the east coast are built to refine Saudi light crude oil. So, the east coast is dependent on middle eastern crude oil.
The US exports oil, and the domestic consumption includes gas and other consumption, which the crude production doesn't include.
This is the best explaination I've found: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/20...
That is not what that article says. It says:
"The United States still imports 7.9 million barrels of foreign crude per day and a sizable chunk comes from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter."
The US imported just less than a million barrels per day of crude oil + products from Saudi Arabia in 2017. It was down to 770,000 per day for January 2019.
Imports from Saudi Arabia have been cut in half since 2003. If the US wanted to it could easily entirely remove them from the oil import mix. They're no longer a required supplier for the US.
If you want to see a nation the US depends on for oil: the US imported four million barrels of crude oil per day from Canada in January.
Yes I am sure many a tear would be shed in the ranks of American elites many of whom are Muslim, Arab businessmen if the US decided tomorrow that they did not like the Saudis anymore and no longer wanted them to exist.
And going beyond just money, remember that the Saudis went after one of the richest businessmen in the US (Amazon's Bezos), you can expect they also went after other businessmen and politicians, many of whom are a lot less tech savvy and protected. That's a lot of things potentially held over important people's heads.
In that context what you are saying makes no sense.
That turned out well don't you think? Iraq was a historical enemy whereas Saudi Arabia is a key ally of the United States. This alone should give you the feeling that there's something happening behind the curtains to justify such an alliance with a... controversial country.
Before that, in the 70s it was a Baathist secular dictatorship that was an oil exporter and thus reliant on the US dollar, while Iran was a Kingdom with a US puppet as Shah.
Going from ally straight to enemy and war is probably a big step even for the US.