ABSTRACT
The basic characteristics of a cartel are production control and price control. Production limitations imposed by members of the cartel enables them to set and control the price of their product. To deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation an extraordinary conference was convened in Geneva on 16 March. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries's (OPEC) midyear conference opened on 25 June in Brioni, after the unsuccessful sessions of the extraordinary conference in March and April, the attempts of the special committee on the fair share of the market and the reports of the committee on non-OPEC producer’s cooperation. In the middle of June it was reported that Saudi Arabia's General Petroleum and Mineral Organization was selling oil products from its export refineries on the spot market price basis. The Soviet Union was, naturally, deeply disturbed by the drastic drop of oil prices, for it benefited enormously from the high OPEC prices.
