Oil prices react to financial crises, supply disruptions, and demand hopes.

Economic downturns, including recessions, tend to have a pronounced negative impact on the oil and gas sector, leading to steep declines in oil and gas prices as well as contraction in credit. Falling oil and gas prices mean lower revenues for oil and gas companies and tight credit conditions that result in many explorers and producers paying higher interest rates when raising capital, thus crimping earnings even more. The article examines how energy markets have reacted to past economic and financial crises, including the Great Depression of 1930, the oil shock of 1973/74, the oil price crisis of 1998-9, and the global financial crisis of 2008.