You’ll be hearing a lot about OPEC today after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it’s withdrawing from the group of major oil exporting countries.
OPEC was founded in 1960 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.”
To begin with, there were just five members: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Since then, it has grown to 12, collectively supplying about 36.17% of the world’s crude oil production. OPEC members control about 79.22% of the world’s total proven crude…