Yesterday the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in the Austrian capital Vienna. In the context of this anniversary, it is important to showcase how this organization of developed third world countries that witnessed many a political conflict within it was transformed into the equivalent of a board of directors that manages the vital interests of very different countries often divided by politics, but brought together by the need to defend their collective resources. For forty years, OPEC was beset by sharp political differences among its members. What is most reminiscent of this phase was the raid carried out by the terrorist Carlos the Jackal and his team on December 20, 1975, when he entered the conference hall during an ordinary session of OPEC, threatening to kill the ministers and taking those present in the hall hostage. He then took some of the ministers from the countries he considered to be enemies, including the Saudi minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani and the Iranian minister Jamshid Amuzgar, on board an Austrian plane to Algeria then to Libya. This was a tragic phase of OPEC's history, as it turned out later that Carlos, who is now serving his sentence in a prison in Paris, was operating on behalf of Libya, a member of OPEC. The late Libyan oil minister Izz al-Din Mabrouk had told one of his counterparts when he was on his deathbed that he was not there when the terrorists entered the conference hall, because he was aware that a raid will be carried out on behalf of his government. Today, this phase of internal conflicts among the members of OPEC has now passed, after having lasted about 40 years of OPEC's history. Also for instance, the Iraq-Iran war led to major strife within the organization, causing the oil prices to plunge to dangerous levels. Then there was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait when the decline in oil prices was the pretext for the late President Saddam Hussein back then for the invasion. There was also the ensuing U.S war on Iraq to overthrow Saddam's regime and the international sanctions against Iraq which prevented the country from benefitting by its oil. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he lied to the U.S Ambassador April Glaspie when he met with her, according to what she told Al-Hayat. He told her that he demands President George Bush to put pressure on Iraq regarding oil prices which plunged to levels unacceptable for him. However, these were pretexts for an invasion that he had planned for at any rate. Subsequently, the American war on Iraq also affected the resources of this country, which wasted more than two decades in wars that deprived it from benefiting by its oil resources. Today, and for almost ten years now, the organization has changed and transformed. Despite the major differences in the political lines of a number of countries like Iran and the Arab Gulf states, they are working together today to maintain an acceptable level for their revenues by closely studying the oil market, and the conditions of the global economy and its growth, in order to plan the production quotas for each country in a scientific manner that is in the interest of all. No one in OPEC wishes to see low oil prices or see prices rise to the level of one hundred or more U.S dollar per barrel, as this would prompt consuming countries to accelerate the development of alternatives which would adversely affect oil producing countries over the long term. These countries have become aware of the need to protect their revenues away from political differences, which are still manifested in the appointments of some senior staff in the organization, such as the post of its Secretary-General. The dispute within OPEC lasted for a long time before agreeing to appoint Abdullah al-Badri as the Secretary General, representing Libya, while both Saudi Arabia and Iran had candidates each; the dispute over these candidates lasted until OPEC reached an agreement. However, this dispute did not affect the revenues of the organization. Today, OPEC faces a new set of challenges, from overcoming financial crises and the decline of growth worldwide, to developing long-term plans in line with what is done by the governing bodies of mega corporations, in order to avoid losses and better exploit profits.
