OPEC's Role

OPEC's Role:

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent intergovernmental organization, currently consisting of 12 oil producing and exporting countries, spread across three continents America, Asia and Africa. The members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates & Venezuela.

The organization’s principal objectives are: 1. To co-ordinate and unify the petroleum policies of the Member Countries and to determine the best means for safeguarding their individual and collective interests; 2. To seek ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets, with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; and 3. To provide an efficient economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations and a fair return on capital to those investing in the petroleum industry. http://www.opec.org/library/FAQs/aboutOPEC/q1.htm

The OPEC Statute stipulates that: "any country with a substantial net export of crude petroleum, which has fundamentally similar interests to those of Member Countries, may become a Full Member of the Organization, if accepted by a majority of three-fourths of Full Members, including the concurring votes of all Founder Members".

The Statute further distinguishes between three categories of membership: Founder Member, Full Member and Associate Member.

1) Founder Members of the Organization are those countries which were represented at OPEC's first Conference, held in Baghdad, Iraq, in September 1960, and which signed the original agreement establishing OPEC.

2) Full Members are the Founder Members, plus those countries whose applications for Membership have been accepted by the Conference.

3) Associate Members are the countries which do not qualify for full membership, but which are nevertheless admitted under such special conditions as may be prescribed by the Conference. http://www.opec.org/library/faqs/aboutopec/q3.htm

Description:

Over the next 50 years, Brazil, Russia, India and China—the BRICs economies—could become a much larger force in the world economy. Goldman Sachs has predicted that China will become the largest economy in 2041, closely followed by the US and India

Enablers:

- Telecommunication - Time Zones - Physical boundaries: seas - Religion - Drinking water scarcity - Shrinking oil reserves - Continental languages (e.g. North America English, Europe English, South America Spanish, Arabic) - Continental unions: African Union, European Union, Unites States,..

Inhibitors:

- Global Industry - World Wide Web - Nationalism - Global commuters - WTO - NATO

Paradigms:

The continents have historically grown into a strong homogeneity of race, religion and economic standards. The combination of an ongoing globalism, backed by 24hr economies, internet and relatively cheap flights and on the other hand an increasing religious and cultural split will drive the continentalism.

Continentalism is enforced by the practical travel distances within continents (e.g. 4 hr flights), as well as physical infrastructures (e.g. electricity networks, roads, railways). The oceans will continue to be a "mental" border between the continents, where the nations within the continent will blend into one.

Web Resources:

OPEC: an overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC

History of OPEC http://www.opec.org/aboutus/history/history.htm