Overview

This volume documents U.S. responses to the dramatic changes that took place in the global oil production system from 1969 until 1974. During this period long-established relationships among oil producing nations, oil consuming nations, and international oil companies underwent a tumultuous realignment. As traditional contractual arrangements between producing nations and international oil corporations broke down, political and economic influence shifted from consuming nations to producing states. The diplomatic effects of this shift in the global monetary balance of power were wide-ranging and include the oil embargo imposed by Arab oil-exporting countries during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. This volume documents U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the embargo, relations with oil producing states such as Saudi Arabia, U.S. relations with allies in the Atlantic Alliance and elsewhere, the administration’s attempt to reformulate the U.S. oil import program in 1969, negotiations between international oil companies and oil producing states, efforts to create bureaucratic structures to deal with energy issues, and attempts to prepare U.S. consumers to adjust to the long-term consequences of a tighter oil market and higher priced oil.