Allied oil shortage in 1917 and 1918

[Romani]

It is common knowledge that German aviation suffered crippling gasoline shortages in the last months of the war, but yesterday as I was leafing through a history magazine I found an interesting article.

There was an oil shortage at the beginning of the war due to the closure of the Dardanelles strait, preventing the Russian and Rumanian oil from arriving to France.

France, and presumably Britain, resorted to buying oil from the USA. However the success of the 1917 submarine campaign led to an order from president Wilson forbidding oil tankers to sail. Both the sinkings achieved by the campaign and Wilson order caused the oil reserves to shrink to critical levels.

This crisis was solved at the beginning of 1918 with the French persuading Wilson to lift the restrictions, and of course, due to the defeat of the U-boats by the introduction of the convoy system.

However, the German spring offensive of 1918 led to another crisis in April because the increased demand for gasoline in all fronts far exceeded supply.

I wonder if the Allied air forces suffered restrictions in their operations at those times due to rationing of gasoline or they never felt the impact because they continued sorties at the same rate and the supply crisis was solved before reserves reached a critical low point.

In a more general tone, I always wondered if the submarine campaign had any effect on the production of aviation industries or if they just got through it without changes.