A look at major oil crises in history

Ajouté : 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Of course, conflict, US and Israeli strikes on Iran started at the end of February. Since then, oil prices jumping more than 50% are two main factors for that. Attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East and Gulf states and blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. The International Monetary Fund has warned that closure of the Strait could cause an energy crisis on board at unprecedented scale.

[00:00:24]The head of the International Energy Agency also saying earlier this month that the current crisis is worse than the 1973, 1979, and 2022 crises combined. Roland takes a look at crises of the past.

[00:00:42]Well, let's rewind the clock back to 1973, which many consider the first oil shock since the Second World War. Well, shortly after Egypt and Syria launched surprise attack on Israel in October.

[00:00:54]The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, announced an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel.

[00:01:03]By the time the embargo was lifted in March of 1974, oil prices had spiked by 300% to around $12 a barrel.

[00:01:11]Adjusted for today's prices, that's around $70 a barrel.

[00:01:16]Five years later, the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War sparked the second oil shock.

[00:01:23]Production in both countries plummeted, affecting global output by around 4%.

[00:01:28]Oil prices have more than doubled to around $40 a barrel. In today's prices, over $150.

[00:01:37]In the 1980s, more refineries around the world came online, boosting production outside of the Middle East, causing oil prices to decline, but not below pre-1973 levels.

[00:01:52]Now, oil then spiked in 1990, following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, with prices reaching around $100 in today's value. Markets, however, quickly regained confidence over the success of a US-led coalition intervention.

[00:02:09]At the turn of the millennium was another oil shock in the opposite direction, with prices dropping to pre-1973 levels in the last quarter of 1998.

[00:02:20]Global demand for oil had declined, and trouble was brewing within OPEC.

[00:02:25]Venezuela had a goal of doubling its output, and Saudi Arabia, not wanting to lose out, pushed other members to increase production by a tenth, fueling a supply glut.

[00:02:37]Over the last two decades, oil has buoyed between two extremes. Rapid economic growth in India and China helped drive oil prices to an all-time high of over $200 a barrel just before the global financial crisis.

[00:02:52]And during the COVID-19 pandemic, as global travel came to a halt, US oil prices actually turned negative on the 20th of April 2020, meaning instead of paying for oil, traders were paid to take delivery.

[00:03:07]But Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused another spike as the West imposed sanctions on Moscow, which at that time supplied a tenth of global oil demand.