Opec – Formation and Influence on the World Economy

They formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. Since the OPEC was instated to protect the interests of oil producers, it could be seen as an example of regional integration. The OPEC is widely considered, throughout the world, as a cartel. This would be an intellectual misconception. The concept of cartel would consider oligarchies limiting competition and monopolies increasing prices. Oppositely, many international oil producers are not members of the OPEC. These non-members saw a fourfold increase in the oil prices, during the 1973 oil embargo. In A history of the modern Middle East, William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton stated that the immediate objective of the OPEC was “to utilize the collective bargaining power of its member states to pressure the Western oil companies to increase oil prices.”. However, the birth of the OPEC did not occur, overnight. In 1947, the Venezuelan and Iranian delegations held talks in Washington, to coordinate their oil policies. In OPEC: Past and Present, Abdul Amir Q. Kubbah stated that the Arab league had a project of creating an “association of Arab oil-producing countries.”, since 1945. The first OPEC-type grouping occurred in 1953, when Iraqi and Saudi delegates joined forces. The agreement between these two states was the first to involve cooperation from both governments. The Arab League held a summit in Cairo, in 1959. During that summit, “views have been exchanged concerning the

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) aims to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the

In a revealing article by George Perry (2001) the author discusses the economic impact that a disruption in the oil supplies would have on world oil prices. He states “Currently 28 percent of the world's crude oil comes from the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) consisting of Arab Muslim nations, some of which are not part of the OPEC cartel. The governing regimes in all these countries are at some risk [due to the war on terrorism].” He goes on to state that in a worst case scenario the economic consequences of oil supply disruption would be “oil prices rise to $161 per barrel driving gasoline price to $4.84 per gallon. The increase in the nation's bill for products of crude oil rises by about 10 percent of GDP, which adds perhaps 15 percent to the inflation rate in the first year. And the recession is the steepest and deepest of the postwar period, with GDP declining nearly 5 percent the first year.”

Short-term: Cleary OPEC policy is to maintain the price down to crumble down the America production especially because of the hydraulic fracking boom. Thus, its goal is to increase production maintaining the oil price low.

The United States imported 9,163,000 barrels of oil per day in 2010. Of that amount 4,885,000 barrels are imported from countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel. (Petroleum Statistics) The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an organization consisting of twelve countries that have formally agreed to fix prices and dictates sales rules involving the export of oil to non-member countries. In order to lessen our dependence on OPEC oil, the United States should begin drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. The oil reserves in ANWR are estimated to contain more than twice as much oil as the state of Texas. (Energy) Drilling for these resources will help the United States by

A.) The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has a membership of 11 countries. The members of OPEC currently supply more than 40 per cent of the world's oil and they possess about 78 per cent of the world's total proven crude oil reserves.

Member nations of OPEC wanted high oil prices to support the fortunes of the ruling wealthy classes and to provide huge public benefits for a the member nation's poverty stricken and unemployed population (Steltzer, 2000).

According to current estimates, more than 80% of the world's proven oil reserves are located in OPEC Member Countries, with the bulk of OPEC oil reserves in the Middle East, amounting to around 66% of the OPEC total (OPEC Share of World Crude Oil Reserves, 2014). Competition amongst the U.S. and the Middle East has never reached this level before. There is a constant tension between the two countries and refuse to collaborate in dividing the market share equally. Furthermore, as both nations refuse any bipartisan agreement, there is no limiting the production of oil. Each nation is looking to drive out competition by any means. What they don’t realize is if they cooperated and reached an agreement amongst the international community, oil will remain profitable just as it was a few years ago. Though, this is unlikely to happen any time soon, but will eventually cause Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries to take a drastic decision when their main source of capital plummets due to the current price of oil. Profits are no longer seen in the oil industry. The Price of oil has been selling at around $50-$60 per barrel, not enough to cover production cost. The United States is able to withstand any contraction within the oil sector, as their financial portfolio is diversified, not solely reliant on the price of

For example, the Intercontinental Exchange while oil prices have not been decided on by oil producers such as Niami refinery fires, Nigerian Pirates and global oil markets. The laws of demand and supply are also predicted by the increase and decrease in the prices of oil. Oil prices are driven by the increase in demand for oil which has limited or completely destroyed the gains for suppliers and producers. While the U.S still consumes more oil than any other country, it is evident from the increase in oil demand that developing countries such as China, India and Japan are driving oil prices higher by their continous growth in oil demand (Anderson, 1).

this as they have no other decision yet to buy from this cartel. It in this manner takes

OPEC is an example of centralized cartel where a formal agreement exist between a few oligopolistic firms to set a monopoly price, as well as develop plan to distribute profits accordingly. The goal is to increase earnings based on outputs and adjust pricing at outputs differ over time.

Once fossil fuels had solidified its status not only as a valuable commodity but also the substance that lubricates the gears of capitalism, several key petroleum exporting countries (Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) unified to

Consisting of 12 producers of oil and exporting countries Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is one of the intergovernmental organization. Three continents over which the organization is spread is Asia, America, and Africa.12 oil producing countries in the organization are as follows: America, Asia and Africa. These12 countries are: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The present headquarters of the organization is located in Vienna Austria. During the initial stage, Geneva was the headquarters of the organization.

The first slide of the presentation does not visually convey what OPEC actually is it merely presents a map of the world highlighting the member countries. Unless someone knows that OPEC is a Middle East-based oil cartel, with some member nations in other areas, this graphic will seem meaningless. A graphic depicting something related to oil is essential to convey the nature of OPEC to the reader. Also, the graphic should be more visually arresting, to grab the viewer's attention. There is also no following title slide conveying the author's name, date, and reason for the presentation.

It is frequently maintained that OPEC is a cartel that has the power to effectively limit its members’ oil production and exports and thus influence oil prices.