OPEC Power: Past And Present

In this paper, I am going to discuss how the oil cartel known as

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) impacted the

United States economy in the 1970’s, how the effects of this are still felt today, and how their power should continue to influence our thinking where foreign policy and energy policy are concerned. First I will explain what OPEC is, its history and how this concerns every citizen in the United States. Then I will discuss how leaders of the past dealt with the pressures concerning the further effects on the economy at the time, which brought to light the need for energy policy as well as pressing foreign policy issues that need to be addressed, as both are certainly detrimental to our economic well being.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has a membership of 11 countries ranging from United Arab Emirates to the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab. The members of OPEC currently supply more than 40 per cent of the world's oil and they possess about 78 per cent of the world's total proven crude oil reserves.

Our world economy depends upon petroleum; petroleum, in fact, has shaped the modern world. It has dictated production technologies and methods. It has facilitated the emergence of a worldwide transportation network. It has allowed cites to grow and expand, and determined the spatial landscape of regions. Due to our great need for petroleum, the scope of OPEC’s power surpasses our prowess as an economic superpower, considering OPEC regulates the output and the price of oil from their reserves.

Twice a year, the OPEC MCs meet in Vienna, Austria to coordinate their oil production policies in order to help stabilize the oil market and to help oil producers (the involved countries) achieve a reasonable rate of return on their investments. This policy is also designed to ensure that oil consumers continue to receive stable supplies of oil. In 1984, the world consumed 58.9 million barrels per day. (A barrel of oil is equal to 42 gallons of petroleum.) In that same year, the United States consumed 15.7 million barrels of oil per day or 30 percent of the total global consumption. This figure continues to grow.

According to the Transportation Statistics Annual Report of 1996, transportation has become...

... middle of paper ...

... all-powerful entity in the global economy. Due to the fact many of the involved countries are politically unstable, it seems strange our own government has not pressed forward with further research on alternative fuels and has not increased the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules in cars for years. President Carter was on the right track, but Reagan undid any progress that may have been made. We are still so reliant on OPEC, which stems from our dependence on oil. I have discussed why this is so and the past should show us that volatile prices cause many problems: economic, political, and environmental.

Work Cited

1. www.opec.org

2. Pirog, Robert L., and Stephen C. Stamos Jr. Energy Economics Theory, SC Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1987

3. Stein, Jonathan B., “OPEC” World Book Encyclopedia, 1989 ed.

4. Walton, Gary M. and Hugh Rockoff, History of the American Economy, Fort Worth, Dryden 1993

5. Yamani, Ahmad Zaki. The Gulf Crisis: Oil Fundamentals, Market Perceptions and PoliticalRealities. The Energy Journal, Volume 12. Number 2. March 1992.