The Allied victory in North Africa was very significant for quite a few reasons, the men fighting in North Africa were battle hardened veterans with years of experience, they had had resounding successes with limited resources, as Hitler didn’t accept North Africa as a primary theatre of war despite Rommel’s insistence, once the Allies had defeated the Axis they captured almost half a million Italian and German soldiers, this in and of itself would be a significant blow to the Axis. In his book “Panzer Commander” Colonel Hans Von Luck quotes Rommel as saying that the war was over (after the German defeat in North Africa) and that Germany should begin peace talks with the Allies.

In terms of oil production, if we look at The League of Nations reports for 1940 we can see that Iraq and Egypt only produce about 4.5 Mt of crude oil (Mt = million metric tonnes) every year German occupation would undoubtably disrupt the the efficiency of oil extraction causing these figures to be somewhat lower. If we compare these figures to those of the US 182.6Mt or the Soviet Union 30Mt you can see that the Middle Eastern oil production pales in comparison. Opening another front with the Soviets after victory in North Africa would be seen as far more important than seizing Middle Eastern Oil production.

The Suez Canal was very important. Erich Raeder believed that capturing the Suez Canal could lead to a German victory without the prospect of crossing the English Channel. He argued that once the Suez was in German control an advance through Palestine and Syria would swiftly follow, by this point the Axis would be at Turkey’s southern border, at this point with an Axis dominated Balkans to the West and German forces to the south Turkey would be forced to join the Axis or at the very least provide safe passage to Axis troops and supplies. The Germans could also have potentially pushed into Iran thus cutting off significant amounts of supplies sent to the Soviets by the Allies

TLDR: North African and Middle Eastern Oil production/reserves weren’t really significant. Losing the Suez may well have opened another Front with the Soviets and potentially called Turkey into the war. Victory would also stop hundreds of thousands of Axis troops becoming POWs.

Sources: “Panzer Commander” Hans Von Luck

http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/league/le0280ah.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-north-african-campaign/100140/