Morris A. Adelman, an energy economist who marshaled free-market principles and hard data in arguing that the world’s oil supply was not running out, died May 8 at his home in Newton, Mass. He was 96. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught and researched for 65 years, announced the death on May 15.

Dr. Adelman emerged at the center of national energy debates when petroleum prices shot up after the Arab oil embargo of 1973. In 1974, the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries raised the price of a barrel of oil to $7 from $2. (Adjusted for inflation, $7 in 1974 would be more than $30 today. On Friday, crude oil was selling for $102 a barrel in the commodities market.)

To diminish OPEC’s power, Dr. Adelman advocated that the United States sow a little confusion. He proposed establishing a system of secret competitive bidding for licenses to import oil into the United States. On the basis of economic theory and experience with oligopolies, he argued that there was a good chance OPEC members would cheat on the public prices they had collaborated to set. As a result, he suggested in articles and interviews, the price of crude might drop and OPEC might unravel.

Dr. Adelman acknowledged the possibility that OPEC would retaliate against the auction system by establishing one overall selling agency. But in an interview with The New York Times in 1975, he said that in itself would be counterproductive because governments would “have the constant divisive job of haggling over market shares.”