| Description |
One of the industries to rise to prominence in the world today is the oil industry. With its governance over the source, distribution and production of gasoline as well as other petrochemicals, the oil industry holds control of the modern world's lifeblood. Automobiles, trucks, airplanes, diesel trains, and almost all other methods of transportation are completely dependent upon gasoline or diesel as their fuel. Not only transportation but heating and airconditioning are also dependent upon the oil companies for production of its needed fuels. Agriculture also depends on petrochemicals for the majority of their fertilizers. These dependencies make prominent any major change of the price of these fuels in the market. This was drastically demonstrated by the oil embargo and price hike as well as subsequent price hikes which occurred in 1973. The unilateral actions by the producing countries, along with the cooperation of the cartel companies lead to the quadrupling of per barrel prices in only four months), the largest single hike in the entire history of the industry. The sudden desperate feelings of consumers at the rising price of gasoline and heating fuel and their anger at the sudden short ages only emphasized their dependency on the oil industry. The vows taken in 1973 of American independence from Arab oil have as yet still not been realized nor very actively pursued. Apparently, the world, led by the United States, has lulled itself back into security now that prices and supples have been reestablished. |
