Which action by oil-producing countries triggered the 1973 oil crisis?

• A. OPEC production increase
• B. Global recession
• C. Government subsidization of oil
• D. Oil embargo by OPEC

Answer: (D)

The action being tested is how controlling oil supplies can trigger major economic disruption. In 1973, in response to the United States and other Western nations’ support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, OPEC members imposed an oil embargo, cutting exports to those countries and, in many cases, reducing production. This deliberate restriction created a sharp drop in the oil available on the world market and sent oil prices soaring, which rippled through economies by raising costs, causing fuel shortages, and fueling inflation. The crisis showed that oil-producing countries can wield economic and political power by limiting supply.

If oil producers had simply increased production, prices would likely have fallen or remained stable, and the crisis would not have unfolded in the same way. The global recession and the policy responses that followed were effects of the embargo and price shock, not the trigger itself. Government subsidies, while they influence domestic costs, do not themselves provoke an international supply crisis.