The author discusses the short-term and long-term aspects of the present energy crisis. He describes the various scenarios for the immediate future and the long run that could be given place by the emerging hold of OPEC over the oil consuming countries.

In the spring of 1978 the International Energy Agency (IEA) staged the second “Allocation System Test”, a simulation exercise designed to check the ability of 19 OECD countries to cope jointly with another oil crisis. The topicality of such a contingency test is demonstrated by the...