Cost of oil supply disruption the worst threat-study

HOUSTON, May 11 (Reuters) - The greatest threat to the United States from crude oil imports is the economic cost of an long-term major global supply interruption, according to a Rand Corp study issued Monday.

"The fact that the United States imports nearly three-fifths of its oil does not pose a national security threat," said Keith Crane, the study's lead author and senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

"There is an integrated world oil market, and embargoes do not work. But a large, extended drop in the global supply of oil would trigger a sharp rise in oil prices and significantly affect the United States, no matter how much or how little oil the United States imports," Crane said in a statement. (Reporting by Erwin Seba)