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| -Image by Copilot |
The queues at petrol stations are not new, and we have been told that even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened today the effects would linger for many months. As of early April 2026, ship transits through the strait had collapsed from around 130 per day in February to just 6 in March — a fall of about 95% — and some 230 loaded oil tankers remain waiting inside the Gulf. A temporary ceasefire was agreed on the 8th of April, but the Strait has not meaningfully reopened. In Part I we'll have a look at what people did in the past and what they are doing now. In Part II, we will look at how we could wean ourselves off oil and make sure that we aren't caught short again.
World War II
Rationing
Many people alive today remember rationing of fuel in World War II. Check out the wonderful British series "Foyle's War" to get a flavour of the times. There were coupons and harsh penalties for those who were less civic-minded and needed to be reminded of the war effort, or who sought to profiteer by taking more than their share. Due to lingering shortages, reconstruction and economic challenges, rationing continued for several years after the war. In the UK it didn't end until the 1950s.
Alternative Fuels
There was also widespread use of alternative fuels such as wood gas. Although fuel shortages in World War I prompted early development of this technology, it was widely deployed across Europe and Australia only during World War II. Vehicles were retrofitted with gasifiers — essentially large cylinders mounted on the back or front of cars and trucks — that burned wood, charcoal or agricultural waste to produce a combustible gas fed directly into the engine. By the end of World War II, Germany alone had 500,000 wood gas vehicles supported by a network of 3,000 firewood stations. Australia had 72,000. An Electrolux -manufactured unit from Melbourne is still on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The technology required no refined fuel, produced useful ash as fertiliser, and could run on almost any dry organic material. Because these units were heavy and reduced engine power output, they vanished almost overnight once petrol became available again, though the idea never entirely disappeared from the minds of engineers. Here's how you can do it yourself, but good luck finding a continuous supply of dry wood.
The Germans also used ethanol — making fuel-grade ethanol from wood waste and ordinary household garbage at eight commercial-scale production plants.
Of course, private car ownership wasn't as widespread then, and most countries still had effective public transport. That was no longer the case by 1973.
The 1973 Oil Crisis
In 1973, the Arab oil-producing nations of OAPEC — the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, a subset of OPEC — cut off oil exports to countries which had supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War, as pressure to force a withdrawal from occupied territories. US oil production had peaked in the early 1970s and America had relied on cheap imports to meet demand — not just for the growing number of cars, but also for electricity production which had become less and less reliant on coal. Within weeks the price of crude oil had tripled.
Odd and Even Numberplate Rationing
The United States introduced odd-even licence plate rationing — vehicles with odd-numbered plates could fill up on odd-numbered days, even plates on even days. A three-colour flag system was also used at stations — green for fuel available, yellow for rationing in effect, red for out of stock. Several states capped each purchase at roughly four gallons. It reduced queue lengths but didn't reduce overall consumption as effectively as hoped, and was easily gamed by those with multiple vehicles or flexible schedules.
Driving Bans and Speed Limits
The Europeans went further. The UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway banned driving, flying and boating entirely on Sundays. France was one of the first countries to introduce speed limits in 1973. The speed limit was effective because driving at lower speeds significantly reduces fuel consumption, especially at highway speeds. Germany introduced them on some motorways.
The 55 miles per hour speed limit introduced in the United States in 1974 was deeply unpopular but also measurably effective. It was, however, only part of the story. The fuel economy of the average American car improved by around 81% between 1975 and 1988, a transformation driven primarily by the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards the crisis prompted, with the speed limit a significant contributing factor.
Power Restrictions
In 1973, many countries still relied on oil for electricity production and heating. The Netherlands imposed criminal penalties — actual prison sentences — for exceeding electricity rations. Oregon banned Christmas and commercial lighting altogether. In the United States, state governments asked citizens not to put up Christmas lights, and about 90% of petrol station owners voluntarily stopped selling fuel on Saturday nights and Sundays in response to President Nixon's public appeal — producing the perverse effect of long queues from motorists rushing to fill up while they still could.
Other
restrictions included lowering thermostats and banning neon signs. Nixon also introduced daylight savings time, to reduce the amount of energy needed for lighting. Business were encouraged to decrease operating hours. Smaller cars also became more desirable.
Japan turned off it's neon lights. For an excellent video about this click here. Note also how the costs flowed on into everything else.
It also led to considerable diversification of power supplies. The UK, for example, increasingly turned to coal and nuclear. In other European countries there were curfews, reduced street lighting, and in some cases electricity rationing. In most countries there were also public campaigns urging people to conserve fuel and power.
What Countries Are Doing Now
The current crisis — driven by conflict in the Middle East, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and consequent disruption to global shipping and refining supply chains — has triggered responses that combine elements from the 1970s with 21st-century innovation.
Several countries such as the USA, China, South Korea and Japan have released their emergency fuel reserves to smooth out prices.
South Africa has repeatedly used rolling electricity cuts to preserve diesel for hospitals and water systems.
India and Pakistan have both restricted diesel for non-essential industry during shortages.
Turkey, Argentina, and India have all imposed temporary price caps on fuel during crises.
Japan and South Korea have anti-hoarding laws that allow police to seize stockpiled fuel.
Sri Lanka, battle-hardened by its catastrophic 2022 financial collapse, was among the first to formalise odd-even licence plate fuel sales, having already lived through what genuine shortages look like. Myanmar, which has also reimposed odd-even driving rules, now has soldiers guarding refuelling depots.
The genuinely novel development is digital rationing — quota systems tied to vehicle registration databases that track purchases in real time, preventing the hoarding and black market trading that physical coupon systems could never stop.
Bangladesh imposed early shop closures and reduced public lighting to cut fuel demand.
India has invoked its Essential Services Maintenance Act to redirect domestic coal output entirely toward power generation, sidelining its own environmental commitments to keep the lights on.
India's UJALA programme — bulk government procurement that distributed nearly 370 million LED bulbs — reduced national energy consumption by around 48 billion kilowatt hours annually while driving prices down far enough to reach the poorest households.
It is a model for any fuel-vulnerable developing nation. It requires no new technology, no new infrastructure, and pays for itself within months. Meanwhile, LED lighting deserves mention as one of the most immediately actionable measures available to countries still generating electricity from oil and gas — which includes much of Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The numbers are striking. If global residential lighting technology had remained unchanged over the past decade, electricity consumption for that purpose alone would be more than 500 terawatt hours higher today — roughly equivalent to the entire electricity demand of South Korea. In the commercial sector, the saving is even larger. Indoor lighting electricity consumption would be some 800 terawatt hours higher — more than the total electricity consumption across all of Africa.
Street lighting is equally significant. Public lighting can consume 20–40% of a municipality's entire electricity bill. Cities switching to LEDs with light-sensitive switching — which activates only when ambient light falls below a threshold — achieve dramatic savings without any reduction in safety or amenity.
Hong Kong's progressive removal of its extraordinary neon signs — up to 90% gone in two decades — was driven by a combination of LED economics and tightening government safety regulations from 2010 onwards, which mandated the removal of unauthorised signs at a rate of around 3,000 per year. The energy saving was real and significant, though locals feel that it has stripped away something central to Hong Kong's unique character.
At this stage Australia is still using persuasion rather than rationing and coercion, but higher prices and shortages persist. The Government has cut fuel taxes to bring the soaring price of petrol down. However, since there were already fuel rebates on most rural diesel use, that price hasn't come down much and many country towns have experienced shortages.
Diesel is the mainstay of the rural economy, needed for farm machinery, transport and deliveries, but the real problem is a supply shortage, not the price. This is partly because a standard barrel of crude oil contains 159 litres, but a refinery cannot simply choose to turn it all into diesel. A typical modern refinery produces around 45 litres of petrol (gasoline) from each barrel, but only about 25–40 litres of diesel, depending on the type of crude oil and the sophistication of the refinery.
The rest becomes jet fuel, LPG, heating oil, lubricants, petrochemical feedstocks and other products. So when crude oil supply tightens, reducing the price of petrol (which makes up the largest share of the barrel) you can't get significantly more diesel without processing more crude, or without expensive refinery upgrades. That is why petrol prices have responded to tax cuts, but diesel relief has been much harder to deliver.
The Government has appealed to the public not to panic -buy, which has been a problem, and has warned that those who price gouge — those who exploit the situation to make more money — will be fined or possibly charged. It is also once again urging people to use public transport and work from home if possible, despite previous efforts to have people return to idle offices.
State governments are also implementing various measures. Tasmania, for example, has quietly made public transport free for the time being to ease economic pressures on households. I didn't know this until I caught a bus last week. Sadly, because of the higher cost of diesel, ferry prices to Tasmania have increased by 145%, which will no doubt impact tourist operators. Carpooling has become more popular, with informal networks springing up in many communities.
Chile and Mexico City have both added emergency bus lanes during fuel shortages.
Indonesia and Malaysia have emergency biodiesel mandates that can be dialled up.
Brazil can rapidly increase ethanol blending because its sugar-ethanol system is flexible.
Iceland and Norway can shift freight to electric rail or ships when diesel is tight.
The crisis is also accelerating plans that were already underway. More than 40 countries now have active plans to expand nuclear power and over 70 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity is currently under construction globally — one of the highest levels in 30 years.
At a Nuclear Energy Summit held in Paris in March 2026, 38 nations committed to working towards tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050 compared to 2020 levels; recent signatories include Belgium, Brazil, China and Italy. The technology most widely discussed for newer entrants is the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) — a smaller, faster-to-build design that can be deployed without the enormous upfront costs of traditional nuclear plants. Countries advancing SMR programmes include the UK, Canada, Poland, Estonia and the United States.
The main drawback is that even the fastest of these programmes faces a construction lead time of 10–20 years, so nuclear is not a solution to today's crisis. It is, however, a direct consequence of it, though I am not personally a fan.
15 Tips to Reduce Your Fuel Consumption Right Now
1. Keep the car properly tuned
A well-tuned engine burns less fuel. Even old-school tuning — timing, carburettor adjustment, clean plugs — makes a noticeable difference. The bonus is, that it also improves performance.
2. Maintain correct tyre pressure
Soft tyres increase rolling resistance and waste fuel. Check them monthly.
3. Combine trips
Cold starts are fuel-hungry. Doing errands in one loop uses far less fuel than several short trips. Do you need to go at all? Can you order online? Make a Video Call or Zoom Call?
4. Drive smoothly
Gentle acceleration and steady speed save fuel. Older engines especially reward smooth driving.
5. Reduce idling
If you're waiting more than half a minute, turning the engine off saves fuel.
6. Lighten the load
Extra weight means extra fuel. Clear out the boot.
7. Keep the car serviced
Clean air filters, fresh oil, and good spark plugs help the engine run efficiently.
8. Use the right oil
Thick oil in winter makes the engine work harder. Using the correct grade reduces friction.
9. Check wheel alignment
Poor alignment increases drag and uneven tyre wear — both cost fuel.
10. Avoid high speeds
Fuel consumption rises sharply above 90 km/h. Slower cruising saves fuel.
11. Remove roof racks and pods T
hey create aerodynamic drag, especially on older cars.
12. Keep windows up at highway speeds
Open windows increase drag. Air-con uses fuel too, but at high speeds, open windows are often worse.
13. Plan routes to avoid congestion - Google Maps are good for this, if you have a smart phone
Stop-start traffic burns fuel. A slightly longer but smoother route can be cheaper.
14. Don't carry unnecessary accessories
Bull bars, heavy toolboxes, and unused gear all add weight and drag.
15. Use a block heater* in cold weather
*A block heater is a small heating element fitted
to the engine block — or sometimes to the oil pan — that plugs into a standard
wall socket overnight. It keeps the oil and coolant warm so the engine starts
easily and reaches operating temperature faster, burning far less fuel in the
process.
Pre-warming
the engine reduces fuel used during warm-up. During the 1973 Oil Crisis, these
were widely used in the USA and Canada and are still standard in cold parts of
North America and Scandinavia, where some cities car parks have electrical outlets in every bay as a matter of course.
Although not generally used in Australia, they could be useful in Tasmania which not only has the coldest weather, but also the oldest fleet and they are especially useful for diesel vehicles. Diesels are harder to start cold because they rely on compression rather than a spark to ignite fuel — and cold air works against that process. Pre-heating the engine overnight solves that problem and not only reduces fuel wasted during warm-up, but puts far less strain on the starter and battery.
These are available online through Amazon or eBay from North American suppliers, and at least one Chinese manufacturer (VVKB) produces them with Australian-standard plugs. The unit itself costs between roughly AU$50 and AU$200 depending on type, with professional installation adding anywhere from one to three hours of labour. The simplest versions — magnetic oil pan heaters — can be fitted by a competent home mechanic in under an hour. Where are our hobbyists and tinkerers?
The List of 15 Things has largely been compiled by Copilot and modified somewhat by Claude and myself. Copilot has also created the image and is now much better at rendering text which has been a problem in the past. All three AI's -Copilot, Ecosia and Claude, have added useful information and references and Claude has tidied up the finished post. The experiments continue. I haven't tried Meta or Grok yet.
In part II, we will look at other ways to safeguard future fuel and energy supplies
PS: By the way, apologies if you have started reading about the Cryosphere re: Polar Regions. Although indeed changing very fast, once again, the immediate crisis takes precedence over the slower moving disaster. With the fuel crisis is upon us right now, I thought we should hold over the two polar posts until we have looked at this issue. Don't worry they will be back very soon as I wanted to keep them together.
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