This volume documents U.S. responses to the dramatic changes that took place in the global oil production system from 1969 until 1974. During this period long-established relationships among oil producing nations, oil consuming nations, and international oil companies underwent a tumultuous realignment. As traditional contractual arrangements between producing nations and international oil corporations broke down, political and economic influence shifted from consuming nations to producing states. The diplomatic effects of this shift in the global monetary balance of power were wide-ranging and include the oil embargo imposed by Arab oil-exporting countries during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. This volume documents U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the embargo, relations with oil producing states such as Saudi Arabia, U.S. relations with allies in the Atlantic Alliance and elsewhere, the administration s attempt to reformulate the U.S. oil import program in 1969, negotiations between international oil companies and oil producing states, efforts to create bureaucratic structures to deal with energy issues, and attempts to prepare U.S. consumers to adjust to the long-term consequences of a tighter oil market and higher priced oil."

This volume documents U.S. responses to the dramatic changes that took place in the global oil production system from 1969 until 1974. During this period long-established relationships among oil producing nations, oil consuming nations, and international oil companies underwent a tumultuous realignment. As traditional contractual arrangements between producing nations and international oil corporations broke down, political and economic influence shifted from consuming nations to producing states. The diplomatic effects of this shift in the global monetary balance of power were wide-ranging and include the oil embargo imposed by Arab oil-exporting countries during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. This volume documents U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the embargo, relations with oil producing states such as Saudi Arabia, U.S. relations with allies in the Atlantic Alliance and elsewhere, the administration's attempt to reformulate the U.S. oil import program in 1969, negotiations between international oil companies and oil producing states, efforts to create bureaucratic structures to deal with energy issues, and attempts to prepare U.S. consumers to adjust to the long-term consequences of a tighter oil market and higher priced oil.

This volume is part of a subseries of the Foreign Relations series that documents the most important foreign policy issues of the Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford presidential administrations. Because of the long-term nature of the 1970s energy crisis, however, this volume includes the period of the Jimmy Carter administration, covering U.S. policy from August 1974 until January 1981. The documentation in this volume focuses primarily on Ford and Carter policies aimed at mitigating the damage to the U.S. and global economy caused by rising oil prices imposed in 1973 by the OPEC cartel, and in 1978 by the perceived shortage of oil supplies resulting from the Iranian Revolution. The documents show that the United States conducted a broad-based multilateral diplomacy to address the crisis and that U.S. diplomats were active participants in the development of the International Energy Agency's program of energy cooperation. The economic summits of the period brought together the heads of state from oil consuming industrialized countries in Rambouillet, London, Bonn, and Tokyo in an effort to devise a common strategy to deal with the impact of high oil prices on the global economy. This is one of a growing number of Foreign Relations volumes that document global issues instead of a bilateral relationship, reflecting the changing nature of U.S. foreign policy in response to an increasingly interrelated world. For documentation on the energy crisis prior to August 1974, see Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, volume XXXVI, Energy Crisis, 1969-1974.