ABSTRACT
Crude oil prices in the United States had jumped almost tenfold from $3.54 per barrel in 1973 to $35.14 in February of 1981. Entrepreneurship bloomed in the oil patch accompanied by a number of sizable hydrocarbon discoveries. Lower oil prices reduced Texas International, Inc. revenues, but its expenses, especially interest payments, remained high. Internal squabbling afflicted Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and led to countless emergency meetings with agendas designed to support the current oil price level or to develop formulae to apportion total OPEC oil production among the thirteen members. Neither procedure alleviated the intrinsic problem: too much oil. The irresolvability of OPEC’s dilemma is partly explained by variations among the thirteen member nations. The largest producer, with a practically endless reserve, Saudi Arabia, has a minuscule population. The oil and gas industry entered a period of sustained economic decline whose ramifications permeated the economy.
