Why in news?
- Recently 175th meeting of OPEC countries was held in Vienna, Austria on 6th Dec 2018.
What is OPEC?
- It stands for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
- It is a permanent intergovernmental organization and the world’s leading oil-producing bloc of 15 oil-exporting developing nations.
- It was founded in 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq.
- Its headquarters is in Vienna, Austria.
- Its members are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, UAE, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Congo.
- Its mission is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers.
- Its members produce more than a third of global oil supply.
- Saudi Arabia is the largest Oil producer among all of its members.
Recent developments
- Qatar has announced its withdrawal from OPEC from January 2019 and focus more on production of natural gas. It has been its member since 1961.
- It decided to adjust overall production by 0.8 mbpd (million barrel per day) from October 2018 levels, effective as of January 2019, for an initial period of six months.
- 5th OPEC and the non-OPEC ministerial meeting took place a day later on 7th Dec 2018.
- Next ordinary meeting will take place in Vienna, Austria in April 2019.
