ABSTRACT
The ensuing world oil glut and accompanying price weakness served to highlight the crucial role of Saudi Arabia within Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). A responsible policy for energy coordination among oil importers must reflect the underlying likelihood of future supply emergencies. Oil importing countries must not consider OPEC purchases mainly as a means for recouping as fast as possible their petrodollar outlays. The pivotal issue of oil pricing must also be directly confronted as part of the framework for eventual exporter-importer accommodation. To keep the threats to oil supply under some measure of control, the diplomatic and economic policies of the major importing countries must be carefully balanced and coordinated. The management of oil stocks must be made subject to a joint or coordinated policy as agreed upon by the relevant oil-importing countries. The Iraq-Iran War continues to pose a wide array of problems which could severely endanger the security of oil supply.
