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.
Unless they have a way to mitigate it, they don’t get oil and international demand drops.
The only large oil consumer who is acting this strategically is China. They’ve been buying dips and building out massive strategic reserves. The Iran War oil crisis would have been a lot worse if China didn’t reduce its consumption significantly.