Vast Financial Surpluses of Oil Producers (VSOP)

This file concerns the Vast Surpluses of Oil Producers (VSOP), between January and April 1976. It contains correspondence relating to:

• A request from the Ditchley Foundation to Ambassador A K Rothnie to invite a representative from the Saudi Arabian Government to attend the Foundation's second conference on 'Cooperation between Developing Producer Nations and Industrialised Consumer Democracies'; the recommendation by Rothnie of Deputy Foreign Minister Abdulla Alireza, Faisal Bashir, or Deputy Finance Minister Mansour Al Turki; and the nomination of the Director of Industry at the Ministry of Planning Mohammad Bakr
• A request from M A Hall of the Financial Relations Department to Rothnie for material towards a paper on the long term effects of higher oil prices on oil-producing countries. It includes the reflections of R O Miles and St John Armitage on Saudi Arabia and Dubai
• The meeting of the Department of Treasury Working Party on VSOP, 23 March 1976. It includes a joint Department of the Treasury and Bank of England paper entitled 'Prospects for OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] Current Balances'; and the minutes of the first meeting of the Working Party on VSOP held at Treasury Chambers
• The amount of the UAE's contribution to the OPEC Fund for International Development.