Organisation Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC):

OPEC was formed in 1960 by 5 oil-producing countries, and it has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. It is an organization consisting of some major oil-exporting developing countries acting as a cartel or oligopoly to promote their common interests. The membership of OPEC grew to 13 in 1973 but, following the withdrawal of Equador (1992) and Gabon (1996), the organization is now made up of 11 countries: Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya (the founding members) as well as Nigeria, Qatar, United Arab Emirate, Algeria and Indonesia.

The principal objectives of OPEC are:

i. To promote oil price stability in international market through periodic review of members' oil - export volume (quota).

ii. To coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of member countries and determine the best means of safeguarding their interest individually and collectively.

iii. To provide an efficient economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations.

iv. To guarantee a fair return on capital to those individuals and corporate bodies investing in the petroleum industry.

v. To provide financial assistance to poor non-oil producing countries so as to close the gap between the rich and the poor nations (OPEC special fund was established in 1976 in furtherance of this objective).