Outlook 2024: The evolving role of OPEC and OPEC+

The organisation remains vital to ensuring future energy demand is met

Founded in September 1960 at what has become known as the Baghdad Conference, OPEC began life as five oil-producing member countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Previously, powerful outside interests in the shape of the leading international oil companies of the day dominated almost all aspects of the development, production and sale of crude oil, while the countries from whose lands the crude oil was extracted received only minimal returns, hindering their national development. Over the ensuing decades, however, OPEC’s member countries—today numbering 13—have evolved to run their own domestic oil sectors, and the organisation has become a respected member of the interna