15.01.2015 - A guide to the inner workings of Opec
Opec was founded in 1960 to help governments gain a bigger share of revenue from oil production in their own countries. At the time, the oil companies in places such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela were owned by the oil majors – for example, Shell, Exxon and BP. The dominant global producer of oil was Texas, and its ability to produce unlimited volumes enabled the international oil companies to drive hard bargains with the governments of the countries which would ultimately come to form Opec. Opec was intended as a counterweight to Anglo-American dominance. For the exporting countries, the early decades of Opec were scrappy – a fight against far better financed, politically connected and technologically sophisticated western oil companies...............................................Full Article: Source
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