It’s difficult to have any positive feeling towards OPEC member countries.
Their “Leaders,” have yet to take in any of the Syrian refugees while they wait for countries in the west to do their jobs.
The standard of living and income of the commoner living in an OPEC nation is woefully low.
Must see to believe. (Source)
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
They were to become the Founder Members of the Organization.
These countries were later joined by Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), Gabon (1975), Angola (2007) and Equatorial Guinea (2017).
Ecuador suspended its membership in December 1992 but rejoined OPEC in October 2007. Indonesia suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it again in January 2016, but decided to suspend its membership once more at the 171st Meeting of the OPEC Conference on 30 November 2016.
Gabon terminated its membership in January 1995.
However, it rejoined the Organization in July 2016.
This means that, currently, the Organization has a total of 14 Member Countries.
The OPEC Statute distinguishes between the Founder Members and Full Members – those countries whose applications for membership have been accepted by the Conference.
The Statute stipulates that “any country with a substantial net export of crude petroleum, which has fundamentally similar interests to those of Member Countries, may become a Full Member of the Organization, if accepted by a majority of three-fourths of Full Members, including the concurring votes of all Founder Members.”
The Statute further provides for Associate Members which are those countries that do not qualify for full membership but are nevertheless admitted under such special conditions as may be prescribed by the Conference. (Source)
It may be too soon to write OPEC’s obituary, but the oil producer club appears in urgent need of late-life care. It shows little understanding of where it is, how it got there or where it’s going. While it still manages to collect new members here and there, its core group looks more fragile than at any point in nearly 30 years.
Alexander Novak, Russia’s energy minister, left, Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister and president of OPEC, and Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of OPEC, attend a news conference following the 172nd Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. OPEC extended oil production cuts for nine more months after last year’s landmark agreement failed to eliminate the global oversupply or achieve a sustained price recovery. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
The historic output agreements, put together so painstakingly last year, are failing.
Nearly 12 months of shuttle diplomacy culminated in two deals that would see 22 countries cut production by nearly 1.8 million barrels a day.
Implementation has been better than for any previous output cut, with compliance put at 106 percent in May. A resounding success? Hardly.
We’re now in the final month of those deals and oil prices are lower than when they were agreed. Not only have producers sacrificed volume, but they earn less for each barrel they do produce.
