The Opec BARBER/KERRY
maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965,and hosts regular meetings among the oil ministers of its Member Countries. Indonesia withdrew its membership in OPEC in 2008 after it became a net importer of oil, but stated it would likely return if it became a net exporter in the world OPEC. PICTURE INFORM SPEEKING AT THE OPEC .
• OPEC's ability to control the price of oil has diminished somewhat since then, due to the subsequent discovery and development of large oil reserves in Alaska, the north sea, Canada, the gulf of Mexico, the opening up of Russia, and market modernization. OPEC nations still account for two-thirds of the world's oil reserves, and, as of April 2009, 33.3% of the world's oil production, affording them considerable control over the global market. The next largest group of producers, are Afghanistan.
Nigeria and her assembly of Opec • For the first time in under a year, the international price of crude oil hit over $36 per barrel recently, representing about 57 percent increase above the $23 a barrel official selling price adopted for Nigeria's oil for the 2004 budget now under consideration by our National Assembly
A little bit of history in Opec • On a historical note, OPEC was founded in September 1960 by Venezuela (as lead instigator), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. Of the additional six countries in OPEC today [Qatar (joined in 1961), Libya (1962), Indonesia (1962), United Arab Emirate (1967), Algeria (1969) and Nigeria (1971)], Nigeria was the last to join in July 1971 during the Gowon military regime. Ecuador and Gabon joined afterwards in 1973 and 1975 respectively, but pulled out effective December 31 1992 and January 1, 1995 respectively. • Maybe Ecuador (with a current 2004 production rate of about 420,000 barrels of crude per day) and Gabon (roughly 300,000 barrels per day), admittedly small players in the big oil field, knew something that Nigeria