Paper Topic:

OPIC organization and how does it affect on humanty?

OPEC and Humanity

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC ) is one of the best known and most powerful international organizations . OPEC controls the supply and price of the majority of the worlds oil . This makes them a big influence on people around the world and humanity in general This will discuss the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries , its makeup and history , and its overall effect on humanity

OPEC was formed in 1960 by Iraq , Iran , Kuwait , Saudi Arabia , and Venezuela . This may seem strange because all of those countries are in

br the Middle East except Venezuela , which is in South America , but Venezuela has a lot of oil and was one of the biggest exporters back then . Since its creation , many other countries joined OPEC , including Angola just this year . Below is a chart of the countries that are members of OPEC , the year they joined , and the percent of OPEC 's oil exports that they made up in 2006

Country Year Joined Percent Exports

Iraq 1960 6 .3

Iran 1960 10 .2

Kuwait 1960 7 .4

Saudi Arabia 1960 30 .2

Venezuela 1960 7 .4

Qatar 1961 2 .7

Indonesia 1962 1 .3

Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 1962 6 .1

United Arab Emirates 1967 10 .4

Algeria 1969 4 .1

Nigeria 1971 9 .6

Ecuador 1973-1992 -

Gabon 1975-1994 -

Angola 2007 4 .3 (OPEC , 2007

One can see from the table that there is more to OPEC than just the Middle East , and that it really is an international organization . To emphasize this , OPEC 's original headquarters was in Switzerland , and ever since 1966 has been in Vienna , Austria

The main function of OPEC is to coordinate the sales of oil around the world to provide stability for the member countries . By agreeing with all the other countries that produce oil to sell only certain amounts each for certain prices , OPEC to a great degree can regulate the world price of oil . This works through the principle of supply and demand Basically , if OPEC wants to be making more money , they sell off oil more slowly . This then drives up the cost of oil because there is more dempand . It also lets the OPEC members build up their reserves for the future . Then when oil prices are where OPEC wants them to be , it can careful increase the oil exported , reaping them huge profits . While the stability this brings the world oil market is good , OPEC 's stranglehold on oil can also cause big problems

The first most famous example of this OPEC showing their immense power was when , starting with a 1973 Arab oil embargo , OPEC was able to ensure the price of oil grew rapidly all the way until 1982 (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries , 2001 . This had a serious effect on people 's lives , since it forced everyone to greatly conserve oil and it hurt economies worldwide . The United States was especially hard hit because they were in the middle of The Cold War...

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