Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): oil prices

This file concerns oil prices and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It contains correspondence and memoranda relating to:

• OPEC’s failure to reach an agreement on a unified price increase for crude oil
• A meeting held by OPEC in Doha during which OPEC decided to establish a two-tier oil pricing system
• The implications of OPEC’s two-tier oil pricing system and the reaction of France
• The oil price dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran; and Britain’s attitude towards this dispute
• The Soviet Union’s desire to form a new organisation of oil exporting countries with a number of ‘progressive Arab governments’
• Shell’s relations with Saudi Arabia
• reduction in the oil industry’s development budget
• Iran’s willingness to allocate three projects to Britain, if Britain is prepared to accept payment in oil. The projects are the modernisation of the Tehran-Tabriz railway; the construction of the integrated steel works at Isfahan; and the provision of new facilities at the Aryamehr steel works
• A report on the current state of the world’s petroleum market. It includes reference to price changes, and to the oil policies of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, Kuwait and the UK
• BP’s relations with Saudi Arabia
• A report entitled ‘the purchasing power of OPEC oil revenues'
• The current situation in the US petroleum market
• The UAE’s oil price and production policy
• Qatar’s oil relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States.