50 YEARS AFTER THE OIL CRISIS on October 17, 2023 at the Kuwait National Library.

The CEFREPA organized an International conference on “October 1973-October 2023. Fifty Years after the Oil Crisis”, followed by an original exhibition which retrace an important part of the contemporary history of the Middle East and the rest of the world from a local and global perspective.

Fifty years ago, the oil ministers of the OPEC Gulf States met in Kuwait to make a series of decisions which led to outcomes that are still shaping our world today.

On 16 October 1973, they decided to increase oil prices, thereby taking back the power of setting these prices from the American and European oil companies that were still exploiting the region’s oil fields.

On 17 October 1973, in response to the October War, the ministers of the Arab countries implemented an embargo on oil intended for countries allied to Israel.

Beyond its economic and geopolitical origins, this event was to have far-reaching consequences for the societies of the Gulf, which were modernizing at great speed, and would become after 50 years the nerve center of the Arab world and the major global players in the fields of energy and finance, as well as heritage and urban planning.

These scientific events shed light on the many discussions that surrounded the measures taken in Kuwait and their consequences for the development of the Gulf States. Bringing together key witnesses to the events of October 1973 and academic experts, they focus in particular on the economic, social and cultural effects of these decisions in the countries of the Middle East, and the way in which these decisions ushered in a new form of globalization that we are still experiencing today.