Abstract
Origin and Aims. Founded in Baghdad in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The principal aims are: to unify the petroleum policies of member countries and determine the best means for safeguarding their interests, individually and collectively; to devise ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; and to secure a steady income for the producing countries, an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations, and a fair return on their capital to those investing in the petroleum industry. It is estimated that OPEC members possess 75% of the world’s known reserves of crude petroleum, of which about two-thirds are in the Middle East. OPEC countries account for about 43% of world oil production (55% in the mid-1970s).
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Further Reading
Al-Chalabi, F., OPEC at the Crossroads. Oxford, 1989
Skeet, I., OPEC: 25 Years of Prices and Policies. CUP, 1988
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© 2008 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Turner, B. (2008). Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In: Turner, B. (eds) The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-74027-7_107
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-74027-7_107
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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