OPEC and the International Oil Industry: A Changing Structure

The origin of this significant and timely book was a lecture on the structural changes in the international oll industry prepared by Dr. AI-Chalabi for the OAPEC annual course on the Fundamentals o[ Oil and Gas. It was given in Arabic in February 1978 when the author was Assistant Secretary General of OAPEC. The author has succeeded in ex panding and updating the basic aspects of the subject. He has managed, in this relatively short book, to survey and analyse the main structural changes in the inter national oll industry during the last 35 years, with special emphasis on the revolutionary changes of the 1970s. The book clearly demonstrates the significance of these changes in terms of their impact on the power of control and decisions concerning the ownership of oil resources, their marketing outlets and price policy. It explains how the concession system and the various consortia arrangements among the transnational oil companies gave them max imum freedom and flexibility in the control and manage ment of emde oil production and pricing. Their vertical and horizontal integration enabled them to control and manage upstream and downstream operations on a global basis and with the effectiveness of a powerful international Cartel.