The first oil war : implications of the Gulf crisis in the oil market

Working paper

The issues which provided Iraq with the pretext for its invasion of Kuwait were oil pricing policies and oil revenues. Of course, Iraq had broader political and regional objectives, but its most immediate and pressing concern was to loosen the economic and financial noose that was threatening strangulation. Low oil prices, technical limitations on current oil output and financial constraints on the investments required to reclaim or expand productive capacity were causing intractable problems for the government and severe hardship for the population. President Saddam Hussain was finding himself pushed further and further into a corner and tried to get out of it by invading Kuwait. This behaviour was utterly unacceptable and rightly condemned by the international community. But for the purposes of this analysis it is relevant to recall that oil was an integral part of the story.

Authors: Archer, L; Barnes, P; Caffarra, C; Dargay, J; Horsnell, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
• Series: OIES paper
• Publication date: 1990-01-01
• Edition: Publisher's version
• Paper number: SP1
• ISBN: 0948061383
• Language: English
• Keywords: switching; the First Gulf War; oil sharing agreements; OIES; oil markets; Kuwait; Iraq; energy efficiency; oil crisis; petroleum products; the Middle East; supply security