[grungerock]

Can anyone tell me what is the story behind the 1973 america peak oil? How did it happen? Was there a sudden short supply of oil in 1973? How come 1973?

[pepper2000]

The actual American peak was 1970 or 1969, I believe. But the average American consumer didn't notice anything unusual until 1973, when the Arab oil embargo occurred. The happened over the intervening years is that American imports grew rapidly, making the US more vulnerable to supply shortage.

[skateari]

Well in 1973 the Arab oil enbargo occured.. but you could say it happend because of America's oil peak in 1970. What happend was this, in 1971 they realised that they are no longer able to produce as much oil as before, and now realise they are in terminal decline. In order to secure financial growth (energy, lots of it), they chose to import it from other countries. Around this time the gold standard was still around, and America realised that they would now have to spend a huge ammount of money on imported oil supplies. So, they figured if they dropped the gold standard, we would really only be giving them paper instead of wealth. Also this would be the only way to keep the wealth in the country. There not getting anything because they cant ask for gold for there dollars.

Once a few Arab countries found out, Iran didn't like it very much, so they declaired a US embargo on their oil supplies. This was about 2-3m/b per day, enough to push demand over supply for a short while. In American news headlines in ran under different terms.

The Oil Embargo caused a small decrease in US consumption for a short time. There were other supplies to make up for the loss so eventualy things settled down. But with the worlds peak production there will be no more oil, it will be like the 1973 oil shock but much worse. There will be less and less net energy availible every year, and industrail countries system of debt and constant growth will come to a halt (now), and then collapse. The world peak will be much more signifacant then the US's peak in 1970.