<P> After 1980, oil prices began a 20 - year decline, except for a brief rebound during the Gulf War, eventually reaching a 60 percent fall - off during the 1990s . As with the 1973 crisis, global politics and power balance were impacted . Oil exporters such as Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela expanded production; the Soviet Union became the top world producer; North Sea and Alaskan oil flooded the market . It seemed that the United States of America and Norway had much more oil reserves than forecasted in the 1970s . OPEC lost influence . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion with: supply disruptions from Iran--Iraq War . You can help by adding to it . (December 2015) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion with: supply disruptions from Iran--Iraq War . You can help by adding to it . (December 2015) </Td> </Tr> <P> Amid massive protests, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled his country in early 1979 and the Ayatollah Khomeini soon became the new leader of Iran . Protests severely disrupted the Iranian oil sector, with production being greatly curtailed and exports suspended . In November 1978, a strike by 37,000 workers at Iran's nationalized oil refineries initially reduced production from 6 million barrels (950,000 m) per day to about 1.5 million barrels (240,000 m). Foreign workers (including skilled oil workers) fled the country . On January 16, 1979, the Shah and his wife left Iran at the behest of Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar (a longtime opposition leader himself), who sought to calm the situation . </P>

What led to a second major fuel shortage in the us