The 1979 Oil Crisis was an energy crisis characterized by a huge drop in oil production for the second time in the 1970’s, the first being in 1973. In the wake of the Iranian Revolution, Iranian oil refinery employees went on strike in 1978. Iran’s oil refineries went from producing 6 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day. The global oil supply decreased by 7 percent, causing a surge in oil pricing. The surge caused major gas shortages, long gas lines, and panic buying. President Jimmy Carter’s Administration began a phased deregulation of oil prices on April 5, 1979. This allowed U.S. output to rise sharply from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska, while oil imports fell sharply. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that oil prices returned to pre-crisis levels.
Service stations struggled to meet the demand of anxious drivers, who waited in long lines for a turn at the pumps. Practices such as “odd” and “even” days (based on the last digit of your auto license) plus limits on how many gallons of gas you could pump at one time added to the panic at the pumps.