Access Type
Online access to this book is only available to eligible users.
Files
Download Full Text (5.6 MB)
Description
A glut of oil, dropping prices, the threat of insolvency, a divided membership—these developments in the early weeks of 1985 underline the cogency of Mohammed Ahrari's historical study of the OPEC oil cartel and his argument that economic forces, not politics, determine OPEC's action in the world arena.
The impetus for the formation of OPEC in 1960 was the desire of the oil-producing states for greater income from their most valuable resource. The international oil corporations had secured lucrative concessions early in this century, and in the 1960s they still dictated both the terms of production and the prices paid the oil states.
In the buyers' market of the 1960s, the organization found itself with little economic clout. But in the early 1970s, OPEC members succeeded not only in manipulating the price of crude oil but in reducing the status of the oil corporations to that of mere managers of upstream operations. In addition, they accumulated enormous numbers of petrodollars by exploiting increasingly tight markets in the aftermath of the oil embargo of 1973 and the Iranian revolution in 1979.
The effects of OPEC policies on the consuming countries have been skyrocketing inflation and sustained recession, with profound political repercussions. But the OPEC members have found their apparent power an uncertain blessing, as Mr. Ahrari demonstrates. Their failure to develop pricing formulas sensitive to fluctuations in the international oil market have made them highly vulnerable. In addition, the political tensions emanating from the Iran-Iraq war and from the specter of repetition of Iranian-style revolution elsewhere in the Persian Gulf have made OPEC's continued viability highly uncertain.
Mohammed E. Ahrari is a member of the political science department at East Carolina University.
"Ahrari astutely looks at the organization's difficult future. The major point of this study is that the pricing activities of OPEC members have been influenced by economics rather than politics."—Booklist
"This important work on a critical subject will appeal to the novice and the specialist alike. In addition to the author's analytical contribution, there is, under one cover a very useful chronology of oil affairs from 1960 to March 1985."—Joseph A. Kechichian
Publication Date
1986
Publisher
The University Press of Kentucky
Place of Publication
Lexington, KY
ISBN
9780813115528
eISBN
9780813156651
Keywords
OPEC, Oil industry, Petroleum industry
Disciplines
Economics
Recommended Citation
Ahrari, Mohammed E., "OPEC: The Failing Giant" (1986). Economics. 12.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_economics/12
Consortium members may access while on their campus.
