With rising oil prices, if countries decided to curtail their consumption - akin to a directed economy - to reduce purchases to a minimum and even refusing to buy above a certain value, what could that cause?
The first reaction I’d expect would be production cuts to hold the prices but, technically, those are already happening. Demand is just not following.
Gas prices would go through the roof as supplies dwindled. The oil producers can hold out much, much longer than the buyers.