ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the structural conditions for oil-producer cooperation. It describes the structure of the international oil market. The most important aspects of the market structure are the demand elasticity and the number of oil producers. The most prominent aspect of the market power is the control over the oil resources, trading mechanisms, and the taxation strategies of consuming countries. The chapter outlines the importance of these aspects. The actors in the international oil market have been grouped as follows: oil consuming countries; international private oil firms, upstream and downstream; and oil-producing countries, including state-run producing firms. Alessandro Roncaglia describes the international oil market as a trilateral oligopoly made up of these three groups of actors. The competition between the companies, between the majors and the newcomers, weakened their common position in the crude oil market. The companies' position was to be challenged by the producing countries. The chapter addresses the importance of this challenge for the oil market.
