OPEC and Non-OPEC Relations by John Roberts

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This article looks at OPEC and non-OPEC relations and their relative roles as global oil suppliers. During the 1980s, OPEC’s global market share f... (More) This article looks at OPEC and non-OPEC relations and their relative roles as global oil suppliers. During the 1980s, OPEC’s global market share fell but still remained significant. At the same time, we saw the rise of North Sea, Mexico, China, the Soviet Union, Canada, Colombia, and oil-producers grow. Yet OPEC’s interest in the non-OPEC producers was limited. The non-OPEC countries did not have the ability to influence price and were restricted in their ability to change production levels. This meant that only a few countries with the ability to change their production levels and with considerable reserves became the dominant players in the global oil markets – Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, and Abu Dhabi. While the interests of these countries were more aligned, those of the non-OPEC oil-producing nations were disparate and could not be neatly categorized as belonging to a single bloc. This paper looks at a number of these non-OPEC countries and their relationships with OPEC: the non-OPEC individualists (the Soviet Union, Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada), non-OPEC nations (Angola, Brunei, China, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, North Yemen, and Oman), the United States, and smaller, non-OPEC producers. (This article by John Roberts, “OPEC and Non-OPEC Relations,” was published by Occasional Paper 7. Boulder, Colorado: The International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development, 1989. ISBN 0-918714-18-4). (Less)