ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member countries have no alternative but to increase their involvement in downstream operations to pull themselves out of their state of under development within the lifetime of their hydrocarbon resources. The modus operandi and the forms which this involvement shall take must rest with the individual nations, each acting in accordance with its own particular circumstances and requirements. As well known, the early industrialization of Europe and North America was based on the existence of indigenous coal and iron ore deposits. The main industrial centers which gave momentum to the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were founded around deposits of such natural resources. Subsequent industrial development can be traced, in many cases, to the exploitation of indigenous natural resources where there existed the necessary infrastructure.
