Energy Crisis (1973)

The energy crisis refers to the social and political-economic disruptions resulting from an abrupt change in the price and availability of world oil supplies in 1973. The crisis was triggered when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declared an embargo on oil exports to Western nations supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. During the same period, OPEC countries (at the time responsible for more than half of world oil production) began to regulate the price and volume of their deliveries. As a result, the price of crude oil quadrupled, from around $2 per barrel in October of 1973 to nearly $10 per barrel in June of 1974.

OPEC's actions had immediate effects. By exercising control over a commodity critical to the ...