That chart only shows just how much more vital it is to protect the oil and natural gas of the middle east. There was risk before in 1950, 1970, and 1990, but today the risk is even greater because SUPPLY is struggling to keep up with demand. So the impact of military action to sieze or sabotage Persian Gulf oil TODAY would be far worse than it was in 1990.
The world today is more dependent on petroleum than It was in 1990:
Daily world crude oil consumption in 1990 was 63,875,130 barrels a day.
Daily world crude oil consumption in 2011 was 87,356,290 barrels a day.
That's an increase of consumption in 21 years of nearly 50%! At that rate, by 2030, global consumption of crude oil will have doubled from 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait.
As the world consumes more oil, and supplies struggles to keep up with this extra demand, price naturally increases. This makes the need to defend the Persian Gulf to protect the supplies even more important than it ever has been in history.
As demand increases, and what supplies is available struggles to keep up, a sudden shock to the system such as Kuwait or Saudi Arabia being overrun would prove even more disasterous than it would have been in the past! Imagine paying 50 dollars for a gallon of gas!
World Crude Oil Consumption by Year (Thousand Barrels per Day)