Do they depend on us?

Today in class the question of whether or not Saudi Arabia and other oil producing companies are as dependent on the industrialized world that uses most of the world's petroleum. While I think that the relationship is most certainly a two-way street, and that an oil boycott would also devastate the Gulf Countries, I also don't see that happening anytime soon.

Given how the United States reacts to even the smallest tremor in the oil market and that the industrialized world has little or no framework for dealing with the rapid withdrawal of Middle Eastern oil from world markets, what are the odds that the industrialized nations of the world without their own oil supply could actually organize a coherent boycott of a country like Saudi Arabia? Slim to none is my best guess.

The history of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia speaks very strongly in favor of this notion. Despite the US' "commitment to human rights" and Saudi Arabia's ties to any number of groups looking to hurt the US, American foreign policy has been nothing if not tolerant of Saudi shenanigans since the Sauds struck oil.