ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the past and future role of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries as the general environment and operations of the industry change. Essentially, the international petroleum industry is caught up in the convergence of three distinct movements, one of which is peculiar to the industry, while the other two are more generally characteristic of the developing world as a whole. The first is, quite simply, the disequilibrium between supply and demand which has been facing the industry for nearly 15 years and which shows no signs of disappearing. The second ‘trend’ is of a different order and appears in many different circumstances and guises. The third ‘trend,’ if it can be called that, is less important, but does seem to influence attitudes, although it might be looked on as not entirely consistent, in some of its manifestations in any event, with the second.
