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Since the 1973 when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC] unleashed their oil embargo during the Yom Kippur War and engineered the first violent oil price rise, there have been three major oil price spikes. After the first two spikes prices eventually dropped to levels below where the rise began; after the third they fell seventy five percent.

The first spike began in 1979 with the Iranian revolution but prices did not return to pre-revolution levels until seven years later. The 1990 spike was prompted by the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. By early 1992 the price retreat was almost complete, though it did not drop below the pre-invasion price until mid-1993. The third spike, which began in early 1999, peaked in late 2000, and by late 2001 had given back 75% of its increase, but went no lower.