Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus (OPEC+)

About

• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is a cartel consisting of 13 of the world’s major oil-exporting nations.
• It is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created in Baghdad in September 1960 by founding members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
• Other members are Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates
• OPEC aims to regulate the supply of oil in order to set the price on the world market.
• The headquarters of the organization are in Vienna, Austria, where the OPEC Secretariat, the executive organ, carries out OPEC’s day-to-day business
• Ecuador withdrew from the organization on Jan 2020. Qatar terminated its membership on Jan 2019, and Indonesia suspended its membership in 2016, so as of 2020 the organization consists of 13 states.
• It is notable that some of the world’s largest oil producers, including Russia, China, and the United States, are not members of OPEC, which leaves them free to pursue their own objectives.
• OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus

• It is a loosely affiliated entity consisting of the OPEC members and 10 of the world’s major non-OPEC oil-exporting nations which are:

Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Q.1) Consider the following countries: (2014)

1. Denmark
2. Japan
3. Russian Federation
4. United Kingdom
5. United States of America

Which of the above are the members of the ‘Arctic Council’?

1. 1, 2 and 3
2. 2, 3 and 4
3. 1, 4 and 5
4. 1, 3 and 5