If I wanted to boycott Oil companies who purchase from the middle
east, who would they be?

Hello,
   This is kind of a tricky question, because the actual origin of oil
is very hard to determine. Recently I was listening to an NPR news
broadcast where they were discussing this very question, and what they
said was that (for example) Saddam Hussein exports a lot of oil to
"friendly" countries and these countries in turn export the oil to the
US and other large oil consuming countries, and that it is very hard
to track down where the oil actually came from orignally.

But none the less here is some information on the subject:
This is a brief link that reports that there are a few companies that
do not purchase oil (directly) from the middle east. Including Citgo,
Sunoco, Conoco, Sinclair, and Phillips.
http://www.e-bski.org/special%20pages/oilcompanies.htm


Here is another website that gives very detailed information about oil
imports, including Country of origin, name of importer, port of entry,
quantity, and much more.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/cli.html

Hope this helps, have a good day.

We got the answer we were looking for .  Problems may have come from
trying to formulate a question.  Well worth the money.

It's impossible for end-user consumers to boycott oil companies; they
can only boycott retailers. Retailers buy their gasoline from a
variety of companies. So Sinclair, for instance, which did not import
oil from the middle east in Feb. 2002, may have bought oil from a
company that bought oil from a company that DID buy oil from the
middle east.

Please read http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/nogas.htm for more
information.

I can't provide any additional infomation on where gas stations get
their oil, but I'd like to add a political/philosophical perspective
on the issue. We've stumbled upon the problem with trying to change
the world by where one spends their money. It is very hard to track
who is "clean" in an open, global economy. Here's a simple example
from my own experience. There was a time when I didn't want to buy
groceries from the big chain stores and instead wanted to support my
local corner stores, which were quickly disappearing as the chains
moved in. Then one day I overheard the old man behind the counter at
the mom and pop market talking about shopping at Walmart. I asked if
he really shopped there and he said he did. He then told me he even
invests in Walmart stock! I realized that it wasn't doing much good
for me to shop with him if he was just going to turn around and give
my money to Walmart. Oh well. We do what we can anyway.

The only way to succeed is to boycott products themselves and not
specific producers or