Why was oil a valuable resource during the war?

Oil was of course of great importance to all the countries involved in World War II. But some countries had plenty of it, while getting oil was a huge problem for other countries. The United States had more than enough oil, but the biggest concern was getting it to where it was needed. The United States was shipping oil to Great Britain in tankers. It was especially needed to be refined and to fuel aircraft. The Germans were trying to cut the flow of oil to Britain by using large packs of submarines to torpedo the tankers, and this remained a problem throughout most of the war.

The U.S.S.R. had plenty of oil as well as lots of other resources in its vast territories. However, the Germans were trying to capture the Soviet oil fields in order to have the oil for themselves as well as to deprive the Soviets of their own oil. Japan, like Britain, had no domestic oil resources. But they had captured a huge amount of territory during the early part of the war, and they were importing oil mainly from what was then called the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Later in the war the U.S. was able to hurt Japan badly by using submarines to torpedo tankers bringing extremely vital oil to the Japanese. Oil fueled war industries, fueled tanks, ships, and especially aircraft. Germany was at an extreme disadvantage towards the end of the war because it was running out of oil. Their huge panzer tanks were useless without the oil which they consumed in large quantities. Their aircraft were grounded without high-octane gas refined from oil.