1973 Oil Embargo

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The 1973 Oil Embargo was a decision of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) to reduce oil supply to the United States, Japan, Britain, Netherlands, and Canada due to what was perceived as unfair policy in the exploration of oil in the Arab countries. Most of the Arab countries believed that the oil exploration activities in their countries were more beneficial to the United States than them because it was exported to the United States at a low cost and used to process petrochemical products or refined oil products which were sold to Arab countries at a high cost. Furthermore, the Arab countries claimed that the wheat they obtained from the United States in exchange for oil was highly priced which was not comparable with It was the first time the world had seen this and was generally a welcomed change. Most of the world followed suit and it quickly became part of everyone’s daily life. At least for the general public the freight of oil or oil shortage was dissolving as citizens became comfortable oil. The fear of running out quickly became an issue again at the beginning of the crisis. For the government and President Richard Nixon at the time of the crisis its clear their first response was to minimize the public outcry. The message that Nixon needed to get across to keep the public’s trust was, the crisis is a small issue here in the United States and with your strength and cooperation everything will be back to normal soon. Minimizing the problem was of the upmost important to not cause widespread chaos. Nixon began his speech describing the hardships the rest of the world would face in comparison the A number of foreign policies were enacted which enabled the lifting of the embargo by OPEC countries. For instance, it was demanded by OPEC countries that foreign oil companies must increase prices and cede higher shares of revenues to the local subsidiaries. This resulted in the decision by Richard Nixon to announce a new energy strategy aimed at boosting regional production and to reduce its vulnerability to oil imports and reduce the strain of fuel shortages throughout the nation (Ross

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