No matter how you slice it, oil is the most important commodity in the world and will probably continue to be the most important commodity in the world for the foreseeable future. Not only is oil the most valuable fuel in the world, so that without it, economies would quickly falter and then decay, but its incumbent uses such as in plastics, roadways, chemical products, and so forth, are seemingly endless. While nations can be successful without strong domestic oil reserves, such as Japan, Germany, and France, there are then also nations with strong strategic reserves that are rich simply because of their oil wealth, and for no other discernible reason, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.
Because of the dual value of oil, to which simply having it and successfully exploiting oil will increase the wealth of your nation, as well as in the usage of it domestically, which provides jobs, stability, growth, modernity, infrastructure and all the incumbent advantages of being in control of a reliable, consistent, and inexpensive fuel source forming a solid basis for a nation; oil is, by definition and practicality, that incredibly valuable commodity that greatly influences the outcome of wars and of wealth, along with its inherent weaknesses of corruption and the exploitation of nations.
Western nations are very good at many things, and certainly one of those many things, is in the exploitation of those that are ignorant of the true value of certain commodities and goods. While it might seem amusing that valuable jewels, minerals, and furs were traded by illiterate savages in yesteryear for mere trinkets and cooking utensils, it isn't so amusing when blowback comes back to haunt you. For instance, the House of Saud, made a formal agreement with Standard Oil of California in 1933, to which, Standard Oil was granted exclusive rights to the oil in the eastern desert, which later proved to be the greatest oil find in the 20th century. While Standard Oil, later to be known in its partnership with the house of Saud as the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) provided monies and funds to Saudi Arabia in return for its oil, the main intricacies of the negotiation wasn't really with Saudi Arabia, but with Great Britain, so that these countries jointly would be able to exploit and extract whatever amounts of oil that they could from the Middle East for their mutual benefit.
Not too surprisingly, domestic oil companies while working in partnership with foreign nations, found it to their benefit to negotiate with countries that had a political structure in which the power and resource control were held in the hands of the elite few, as opposed to truly democratic countries. This meant too that the United States in conjunction with oil companies, made it their policy to supply whatever that needed to be supplied logistically, militarily, strategically in such a way that America's access to cheap middle eastern oil would not be tampered with by middle eastern nations, reneging on their contractual obligations to this country. By virtue of this mindset, American companies were able to exploit and to profit by billions of dollars from their favorable deals as well as providing military supplies, communications, and technology to protect or uphold these foreign oil regimes from foes, both domestic as well as foreign.
While Middle Eastern nations have asserted more sovereignty over their own affairs in recent years, they are, to a large extent, still at the mercy of the technology and infrastructure of Western nations and their immense power, to which the tentacles of the West reach into virtually every aspect of their lives, their politics, and their country, and with the massive amounts of money that oil represents, corruption is absolutely rampant, meaning for the most part, that countries such as Saudi Arabia are in so deep that they could not possibly extricate themselves from the West; while the massive wealth inequality breed inside their restrictive country sets the stage for citizen revolt and upheaval that very well may shake the very foundations of this world.