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The Oil Crisis Of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries

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The 1973-1974 Oil Crisis was a result of a myriad of issues. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) took concerted action in continuously reducing their oil production “until their economic and political objectives were achieved.” The production was reduced so much that in some areas the oil prices dramatically rose “six-fold.” The OAPEC countries production cuts disrupted the industrial countries’ necessary oil supplies and there was nothing that could be done to alleviate the price spike, thanks in large part to the industrial countries insufficient spare oil capacity (Scott 28). Moreover, the Yom Kippur War, the fourth of the Arab-Israeli wars, was waged, in which Egypt and Syria led a coalition of Arab states against Israel from October 6. Within a week, Iraq had “nationalized American interests in Basrah Petroleum’s southern Iraqi production” and three eastern Mediterranean pipeline terminals had been shut down. Furthermore, on October 27, ten Arab states had announced “a progressive step-by-step production cutback and embargoes” against the United States, the Netherlands, and Denmark due to their alleged support for Israel (Lantzke 219). Essentially, the embargoes were politically employed by the Arab producers’ as a weapon of coercion, in that the embargoes were designed to influence policy changes in the countries that were friendly to Israel. Although the previously-existing Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation already had

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