When war broke out once again in the Middle East last October it was widely assumed that oil supplies to Western Europe and Amenca would be disrupted by the conflict. There was little surprise when, in midOctober, the Arab oil producers decided to put up the "posted prices" on which tax payments by the oil com panies to the producing Governments are hased, and to cut back produclion by 55. This latter move was designed to put teeth into a decision to cut off oil supplies from the US and Holland, because of their support for israel.
These moves were of minor significance. Only a small share of total US oil supplies (6%) come from the Arab countries. Holland is mone dependent on the Arab producers, but most of her domestic needs (as opposed to oil which is reined in Holland and then exparted to Belgium and Germany) could be met from non-Arab suppliers and existing stocks for some time to In Novemher, the Arab states resorted to tougher measures and cut back production by 25%. At the ances that those countries who had taken a friendly stance towards From the very first the Anth measures ran into difficulty will the oil monopolies. Because these firms control the shipping and distribution of world oil, the enforcement of the boycott would depend on their cooperation. However the monopolies preferred to distribute existing oil supplies among all their customers, no matter what the producing states intentions were.
It was for this reason that the producing states had to put teeth into their haycott by imposing production cuts, so that the oil