In October 1973, Arab members of OPEC halted oil sales to the United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War and cut production, in part to gain leverage in the postwar settlement. The price of a barrel of oil roughly quadrupled, from about 2.90 dollars before the embargo to 11.65 dollars by January 1974. The shock triggered fuel shortages and rationing across importing economies and, arriving alongside the breakdown of the Bretton Woods exchange rate system, is widely credited with helping trigger the stagflation of the 1970s.
Facts
Event DateOctober 19, 1973 is the conventionally cited date the Saudi embargo decision became public, in the days after OAPEC's October 17 decision to cut production; the wider embargo unfolded over the following days. LocationMiddle East and global oil markets 2 Connections
Associated With
The quadrupling of oil prices is widely credited as a proximate trigger of 1970s stagflation.
Source Milestones: Oil Embargo, 1973-1974
Source Milestones: Oil Embargo, 1973-1974
Sources
1. Wikipedia: 1973 oil crisis
1973 oil crisis, Lifting the embargo
On 18 March 1974, King Faisal ended the oil embargo.
In Group: Stagflation and Oil Shocks of the 1970s, Lead
In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Egypt and Syria launched a large-scale surprise attack in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the territories that they had lost to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
View the Source2. Milestones: Oil Embargo, 1973-1974
United States Department of State, Office of the HistorianMilestones: Oil Embargo, 1973-1974
The embargo laid bare one of the foremost challenges confronting U.S. policy in the Middle East, that of balancing the contradictory demands of unflinching support for Israel and the preservation of close ties to the Arab oil-producing monarchies.
- Associated With: 1970s Stagflation
View the Source 3. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation1973 oil crisis, EmbargoQuote, 1973 oil crisis, Embargo
On the afternoon of 19 October 1973, Faisal was in his office when he learned about the United States sending $2.2 billion worth of weapons to Israel
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