The
1970s energy crisis was a period when the major industrial countries of the world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial
petroleum shortages, real and perceived, as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period were the
1973 oil crisis and the
1979 energy crisis, when the
Yom Kippur War and the
Iranian Revolution triggered interruptions in Middle Eastern oil exports.