Chapter 31 Section 3 Worksheet

Oil Consumption in the 1970s

1. What was the trend in oil consumption from 1970 to 1973?
The amount of oil consumed by the U.S. went up steadily from 1970 to 1973. The amount consumed rose from about 28 quadrillion Btu to 34 quadrillion Btu.

2. How much oil did Americans consume in 1973?
Americans consumed 34 quadrillion Btu of oil in 1973.

3. In which year during the 1970s was oil consumption the greatest?
Oil consumption was the greatest during the 1970s in in 1978, when it reached a peak of 37 quadrillion Btu.

4. Why where there rather sharp declines in oil consumption after 1973 and 1979?
From 1973 to 1974, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were angry with the U.S.'s support of Israel in the 1973 war with its Arabian neighbors. They retaliated by cutting oil exports to the U.S. and raising the price of oil from $3 a barrel to $12 a barrel, causing U.S. gasoline and heating oil prices to grow exponentially. In 1979, OPEC raised the price of oil again, this time from $12 a barrel to more than $30 a barrel.

5. What do you imagine happened to oil consumption in 1981? Why?
I assume that U.S. oil consumption declined steadily after 1979, when the price of oil rose from $12 a barrel to $30 a barrel. On the graph provided on the worksheet, it is shown that the U.S.'s oil consumption fell from about 37 quadrillion Btu to 34 quadrillion Btu. Unless the price of oil dropped drastically, it can be assumed that consumption would follow the same pattern.

6. Logically, why should the percentage of imported oil consumed in the United States have dropped in 1973-1974?
"Logically", the percentage of imported oil imported to the U.S. should have dropped in 1973 and 1974 because the leaders of OPEC, and organization which basically decided the price of oil, cut exports to the U.S. and raised the price of oil from $3 a barrel to $12 a barrel. It follows, ("logically", of course), that the U.S.'s consumption would fall.

Why do you think it did not?
I think it did not because by the point in the time that the prices were raised hugely, the U.S. was so dependent on foreign oil that simply not buying it was not an option anymore. So the imported oil to the U.S. did not drop, but it didn't rise either.

7. Until 1969, imported oil had never been more than 19.8% of the total amount of the oil consumed in the United States. In your own words, summarize what happened to U.S. reliance on foreign oil in the 1970s.
During the 1970s, for whatever reason (probably lack of national resources), the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil went up exponentially. It went from 19.8% as the total amount imported in 1969 to a peak of 46% in 1977. The U.S. went from having little oil exported to being dependent on it for almost half of the oil consumed in the 1970s