Remember when Carter told is we were running out of oil.
Was that a true statement?
No. I worked for a shipping company at the time in Houston and we had 10-15 tankers at a time waiting in the gulf to unload. We even sent a few to Miami but they came back half full.
There was plenty of oil.
The true answer to “was there a shortage of oil” is that it was an artificially created “shortage” because of Carter’s bumbling attempts at regulating prices. Suppliers were sitting on the supply waiting for the huge profits when the time was right. Carter managed to create shortages of just about every commodity you can name.