ABSTRACT
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) achievements over its 20 years of existence may be evaluated in terms of the net benefits member governments have received, whether economic or non-economic. The low price of oil can be regarded as the primary cause of the creation of OPEC. The first declaration by OPEC emphasized the question of prices. Thus the first task which OPEC set for itself was to stabilize oil prices and keep them ‘steady and free from all unnecessary fluctuations’. After failing to press successfully for any change in oil prices, OPEC launched phase two of the campaign to secure better arrangements for the producing countries. Since 1960 OPEC has examined the possibility of developing a system of overall production control. The protagonists of this idea in the Arab bloc was Sheikh Abdullah Tariki, then Oil Minister in Saudi Arabia.
