Power and politics in world oil

Abstract

Though there has recently been more oil in the marketplace than anyone knows what to do with, a feeling of apprehension persists. We know that oil is a fi. nite resource upon which the world is profoundly dependent. We remember how a handful of producers shook the market for this critical commodity almost ten years ago, causing a fourfold price increase in a few weeks. We sense that these producers have since 1973 consolidated the position that gave them unprecedented control of the market. Indeed, the 13 producing countries that are now members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) today provide one-third of the world's oil; half of all exported oil comes from the Middle East. It is easy to believe that industrial countries are increasingly at the mercy of these oil- exporting countries, whose political and religious traditions are so vital and different from those of the West.