The 1973 Oil Crisis: a Look after half a Century

Abstract

The article examines the prerequisites and consequences of the global oil crisis of 1973. It analyzes not only the political reasons that prompted the Arab oil exporting countries to use the “oil weapon” (the unresolved Middle East conflict and the Palestinian problem), but also the crisis phenomena in the Western economy. Not only Arab countries, but also powerful oil companies, backed by Western countries, especially the United States, were interested in change. For the West, the oil crisis caused difficulties and problems in the short term, but in the long term it turned out to be a catalyst that accelerated structural and technological changes in the Western economy and in the global financial system. The oil crisis allowed the oil-producing countries of the Arab East to sharply increase the level of state income, which opened up opportunities for accelerated socio-economic development, and also increased the authority of these countries and OPEC in international relations.