OPEC's Role

OPEC's Role:

under construction: Phil Poetter

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Description:

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

Enablers:

- OPEC member states

Inhibitors:

OPEC's has taken a leading role during the following occasions:

- 1973 oil crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

Paradigms:

Due to its ability to govern production levels of a globally critical energy source, any action taken by OPEC gets heavily scrutinized by stakeholders and triggers controversial feedback. http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2008.3.4.35

Timing:

- OPEC was created at the Baghdad Conference (10–14 Sep 1960), by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as the founding states. http://www.opec.org/aboutus/history/history.htm

Web Resources:

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

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

Historic Oil Prices http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Oil_Prices_1861_2007.svg/800px-