ABSTRACT
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries—OPEC—was formed at a meeting held on September 4, 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq, by five Founder Members: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organization, currently made up of eleven oil producing and exporting countries, spread across three continents; America, Asia and Africa. The OPEC Member States are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. In these countries, oil is the vital key to development—economic, social and political. OPEC's principal objectives are: 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; to see ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets; and 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.
