Read your numbers again.
From 1972 to 1974, the price goes from $3 to $12 - that’s four times the price at the beginning. Add 300% in two years or 150% per year.
From 1978 to 1982 - 4 years - the price goes from $14 to $35. That’s a factor of 2.5 in four years. Add 150% in four years or 37.5% per year.
Do you see a difference there?
What you’ve got is a price increase so large that simply purchasing the usual amount of oil/gasoline would have caused such an enormous trade deficit (and all the economic problems that come with it) that even the German government felt it had to act.
Germany has no oil reserves to speak of - if it has any at all. All of its oil comes from elsewhere, and those price increases (caused by an artificial shortage manufactured by OPEC) were a serious problem.
The ‘difference’ was an OPEC embargo. They refused to sell oil to any country that supported Israel. I do not know what other countries OPEC included in that embargo besides the US.
The shortage happened because the US imposed price caps on the price of gas. Econ 101 says prices should rise till supply evens out with demand. Since gas was more scarce the price should go up. Say I only have ten gallons of gas but a hundred people who want to buy it for $1 a gallon. I’m going to run out of gas fast. At $2 a gallon 75 people want it. $3/gallon 50 people want it. $4/gallon 25 people want it. $5 and maybe I get to 10 people willing to pay that. This is where the price should be. However, the government stpes in and says it can’t cost more than $2/gallon…instant shortage (note this is all just an example…I don’t know the actual prices). Normally the US government loathes capping prices but gas has such a ripple effect that they felt it was necessary (at $5/gallon the cost of everything rises dramatically…food, clothes, consumer goods, etc.). Down that road the government sees a serious recession so they moved to avoid it. It is a topic for another thread whether you think this was a correct decision to make.
It is interesting to note that Saddam Hussein was the one who broke the OPEC embargo by agreeing to sell oil to the US. This of course made him our buddy (that and attacking Iran who we especially hated at the time). It also made Iraq instantly wealthy (or if not wealthy their economic prospects improved considerably). Saddam used a lot of that money to modernise Iraq (roads, electricity, education, etc.) and IIRC he even got an award from the UN for his noble efforts on behalf of the Iraqi people aruond this time.