OPEC (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – IR)

Context: Petroleum and natural gas minister recently urged OPEC to consider oil-consuming nations and reduce output cuts.

India and oil import

• India, which imports over 80% of its oil needs, has experienced a rise in oil prices due to production cuts, making it susceptible to potential impacts on its import bill, inflation, and trade deficit with any global price increases.
• India is not a participant in OPEC or OPEC+.

OPEC

• About: It is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
• Headquarters: Vienna, Austria.
• Aim: To regulate oil supply with the aim of stabilizing the global oil price, thus preventing volatility that could negatively impact the economies of both oil-producing and oil-importing nations.

OPEC+

• About: It is a group of 23 oil-exporting countries that meets regularly to decide how much crude oil to sell on the world market.
• Aim: To work together on adjusting crude oil production to bring stability to the oil market.
• At the core of this group are the 13 members of OPEC (the Organization of the Oil Exporting Countries), which are mainly Middle Eastern and African countries.
• Members: 13 members of OPEC (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, and Venezuela) and 10 other oil-producing countries (Russia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, South Sudan and Sudan).
• Russia, a major oil producer surpassing even Saudi Arabia, holds a pivotal position alongside OPEC in shaping worldwide crude oil price trends.