A unilateral blockade.
Nuclear weapons cannot be used for most conflicts.
But about 30 middle East countries discovered they can bring the highly leveraged US to their knees by mining/drone attacking the two middle east shipping chokepoints.
Strait of Hormuz — Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates; very near: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq
Bab el-Mandeb — Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea; very near: Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Oman
(maybe add the straits of singapore too)
Correct. And now we have first right to Venezuela's.
And Canada's too! The USA has "dibs" on Canadian oil. We can't sell it to ourselves without giving the USA the "right" to buy it at that price too. Good for USA, bad for Canada.
Add to that 10+ years of incompetent communist Federal governments who REFUSE to allow Alberta to prosper. Or SK or MB, or even their darling Maritimes who also have some oil.
Eastern Canada & Quebec would rather buy oil from Saudi Arabia than from Western Canada.