ABSTRACT
Libya joined Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1962. Membership of this body has been highly conducive to Libya’s oil interests. The OPEC background played a decisive part in Libya’s adopting the 1965 amendment to the Petroleum Law, which was based on the OPEC formula. Libya was a founder member of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). OAPEC was established in January 1968 by three conservative Arab oil-producing countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya. The original membership of OAPEC was confined to Arab countries for whom oil constituted ‘the major and basic source of national income’. Libya had played a part in the Arab Petroleum Congresses since their inception in 1958. Their proceedings and resolutions have been generally marked by radical proposals and hostility to the major oil companies. Relations with neighbouring Algeria in so far as petroleum affairs were concerned had been friendly during the 1960s.
