#Important

* West Texas Intermediate (WTI) used by US, Brent Blend, and Dubai Crude are three primary benchmark crude oil.

* They serves as a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil.

* Since India imports primarily from OPEC countries, Brent is the right benchmark for oil prices in India.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

* OPEC was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. They were to become the Founder Members of the Organization.

* These countries were later joined by Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), Gabon (1975), Angola (2007), Equatorial Guinea (2017) and Congo (2018).

* Ecuador suspended its membership in December 1992, rejoined OPEC in October 2007, but decided to withdraw its membership of OPEC effective 1 January 2020.

* Indonesia suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it again in January 2016, but decided to suspend its membership once more at the 171st Meeting of the OPEC Conference on 30 November 2016.

* Gabon terminated its membership in January 1995. However, it rejoined the Organization in July 2016.

* Qatar terminated its membership on 1 January 2019.

* This means that, currently, the Organization has a total of 13 Member Countries.

* The OPEC Statute distinguishes between the Founder Members and Full Members - those countries whose applications for membership have been accepted by the Conference.

* The Statute stipulates that “any country with a substantial net export of crude petroleum, which has fundamentally similar interests to those of Member Countries, may become a Full Member of the Organization, if accepted by a majority of three-fourths of Full Members, including the concurring votes of all Founder Members.”

* The Statute further provides for Associate Members which are those countries that do not qualify for full membership, but are nevertheless admitted under such special conditions as may be prescribed by the Conference.

07/03/21 The Hindu

For 8/03/21