Oil crises

1973 petroleum shortage

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime choke point for world energy trade, has been largely blocked by Iran since 28 February 2026, when the United States and Israel launched an air war against Iran and assassinated its supreme leader Ali Khamenei. In retaliation, Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Israel, US military bases, and US-allied Gulf states. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) issued warnings forbidding passage through the strait, has boarded and attacked merchant ships, and has laid sea mines in the strait. Since 13 April, the US has blockaded Iranian ports, leading to a "dual blockade" of the strait. Until the US–Israeli war against Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was open and about 25% of the world's seaborne oil trade and 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through it.

2020 oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia

1979 petroleum shortage

occurred from 1951 to 1954

massive oversupply of crude oil in the 1980s

Wikimedia disambiguation page

Blockade in Madhesh Region of Nepal

panic buying of fuel

in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

serious surplus of crude oil that started in 2014–2015 and accelerated in 2016