Arab anger at U.S. support of Israel led to an OPEC oil embargo of exports to the U.S. and any countries supporting Israel from October 1973 until March 1974, reducing production by 5% and increasing the price of crude by 70%. This resulted in an immediate increase in the price of oil on the world market from $3 to $12 a barrel, gas lines around the block at U.S. gas stations, and a crash in the U.S. equities market. The EU and Japan dissasociated themselves from U.S. policy.
The crisis eased through successful U.S. pressure on Israel to partially withdraw from the Sinai and a promise to withdraw from the Golan Heights (as yet unfulfilled), and a more deeply enmeshed corruption between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to provide them weapons and military training, other technologies and infrastructure development in exchange for their petrodollars and assurance of a steady and reasonably priced supply of oil.
Long-term effects of inflation and recession in the West's oil-dependent economy persisted into the mid-1980s. The crisis stimulated efforts to discover and develop new petroleum resources and launched the energy conservation movement.
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