Abstract
In 1970 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (opec) produced about 1.16 billion tons of crude oil; 1.12 billion were exported, mainly to the industrialized countries. Opec export revenues in that year totalled about $7.8 billion. In 1979, opec members exported about 1.43 billion tons; their export revenues totalled $199 billion.1 In between, there were two revolutions in the world oil market and, as a result, oil is no longer what it used to be. Today, no other commodity has such importance for the future of world politics.2 From a largely commercial activity, international trade in oil has become a source of East-West tensions, North-South negotiations, and considerable disagreement within the Western alliance system in other words, a key issue of international affairs, whose importance it is very hard to exaggerate. To address this issue adequately would require arrangements which reconcile a complex array of different interests and objectives, and the establishment of a degree of stability in one of the most volatile regions of the world: no mean feat. Who controls the world of oil? The central thesis in this essay
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