ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolution of British policy through the stages with a focus on how broader transitions in the international oil industry coupled with the development of North Sea oil turned Britain from a haughty to a fearful opponent before finally transforming into an unfriendly fellow-traveler with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The complex nature of oil policy decision-making in Britain stems from the equally complex relationship that it maintained with its two primary oil companies, British Petroleum (BP) and Shell. The blase attitude taken by the British during OPEC’s formative years began to shift in 1962 when the organization’s two-yearly conferences resulted in resolutions seeking to redress some of the revenue imbalance brought about by the price cuts of 1959 and 1960. The strategic retreat from the Gulf also marked a key transition in how Britain viewed OPEC and the means by which further changes to the oil industry could be resisted.
