What's what mean?
The
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (
OPEC) is a group of twelve
states[1][2] made up of
Algeria,
Angola,
Indonesia,
Iran,
Iraq,
Kuwait,
Libya,
Nigeria,
Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, and
Venezuela. Recently, Indonesia has decided to quit the organization, though it will remain a member until the end of 2008. The organization has maintained its headquarters in
Vienna since 1965, hosting regular meetings between the oil ministers of its member states.
According to its
statute, the principal goal is the determination of the best means for safeguarding their interests, individually and collectively; devising ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international
oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; giving due regard at all times to the interests of the producing nations and to the necessity of securing a steady income to the producing countries; an efficient, economic and regular supply of
petroleum to consuming nations, and a fair return on their capital to those investing in the petroleum industry."
[3]
OPEC's influence on the market has been negatively criticized. Several members of OPEC alarmed the world and triggered high inflation across both the developing and developed world when they used oil embargoes in the
1973 oil crisis. 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 the
Gulf of Mexico and the
North Sea, the opening up of
Russia, and market modernization. OPEC nations still account for two-thirds of the world's oil reserves, and, as of March 2008, 35.6% of the world's oil production, affording them considerable control over the global market. The next largest group of producers, members of the
OECD and the
Post-Soviet states produced only 23.8% and 14.8%, respectively, of the world's total oil production.
[4] As early as 2003, concerns that OPEC members had little excess pumping capacity sparked speculation that their influence on crude oil prices would begin to slip.
[5][6]
The other one is the "shocker", it means two in the pink and one in the stink.
