Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): oil prices

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

• A meeting held by OPEC in Doha during which OPEC decided to establish a two-tier oil pricing system
• A report by the British Department of Energy, entitled ‘Forecasts of World Energy Balances’
• A report concerning the development of the international oil market in 1977 under the dual pricing system
• Efforts to end the two-tiered pricing system
• The oil price dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Britain’s involvement
• Kuwait’s discussions with Saudi Arabia, including on the pricing of oil lifted by Arabian Oil Company Limited from the Ras Al Khafji field offshore from the old neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
• Syria’s desire for Arab oil producers to give more money to Africa
• The increase in the price of North Sea oil
• The increase in tax on petroleum products
• The Saudi Minister of Petroleum Ahmad Zaki Yamani’s visit to London and his conversation with the British Secretary of State for Energy Tony Benn on topics including the two-tier pricing system; Yamani’s wish for Britain to relax its sulphur emission controls; the position of BP; the extravagant rate of consumption in the US and its impact on the world’s energy situation; Saudi Arabia’s efforts to restrict the increase in oil prices; and the level of North Sea oil production
• The effect of Saudi Arabia’s oil pricing policy in Europe
• Yamani’s visit to Abu Dhabi
• The relations of Egypt and Syria with the Arab oil producers
• Iran’s oil pricing policy
• The current surplus of the OPEC group
• A summary of the main points made during Mr Robert Mabro’s lecture entitled ‘the impact of OPEC’s policies on oil consumers and producers’
• A report on the current state of the world’s petroleum market. It includes reference to price changes, and the oil policies of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, Kuwait and the UK
• A meeting held by the 'Burrows Group', during which they discussed: OPEC; the Conference of International Economic Cooperation (CIEC); and Saudi Arabia's behaviour during the CIEC.