In September 1973, Richard Nixon said, "Oil without a market, as Mr. Mossadegh learned many, many years ago, does not do a country much good", referring to the 1951 nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, but between October 1973 and February 1974 the OPEC countries raised by posted price fourfold to nearly $12. Forty years ago this week the 1973-74 oil crisis began, as the producers’ cartel OPEC significantly raised prices and, shortly after, cut off supplies to several Western countries in retaliation From 1973 to 1974, the price of oil (adjusted for overall inflation) rose more than 50 percent. Then, a few years later, OPEC did the same thing again From 1979 to 1981, the price of oil approximately doubled. Measured in 2004 dollars, the price of crude oil reached $91 per barrel, and the price of gasoline was $3 per gallon.