The OPEC (short for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) was founded in 1960 in Baghdad, by Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kuwait. Currently, OPEC has 12 member countries. The goal of OPEC is to secure steady incomes to the member countries and to influence world oil prices through economic collaboration. Any country that exports…
After finally agreeing to cut oil production after two-plus years of decline, Saudi Arabia has indicated that refining customers in both North America and Europe will receive lower shipments starting in January. The reason for those specific targets is because of lower margins, particularly in the United States. Asian customers won’t be affected, with eight…
Man and petroleum have a long history together. We have records from the fifth century BC of man’s association with the sticky black fluid, when Herodotus described the Ardericcan oil pits (located near the ruins of Babylon). He also talks about a pitch spring that he saw at Zacynthus (one of the Ionian Islands). Petroleum’s…
The world consumes more than 85 million barrels of oil every day and this oil comes from more than 4000 oil fields. Most of these oil fields are small and they don’t even produce 20,000 barrels per day. The really big oil fields that produce more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day are less…
Oil pricing- how is it calculated? Crude oil comes in three grades- UAE Dubai Crude, North Sea Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate. The entire oil industry uses these three grades as a benchmark. The oil from individual fields is compared with the three grades and priced accordingly. Oil production does not vary by season,…
When petroleum engineers strike crude oil, they analyze it. There are two important qualities that are analyzed – the crude oil density, which determines whether the crude oil is classified as light or heavy and the sulfur content of the oil. Heavy oil is slow when it flows and its constituents are also heavier. Refining…
The three-year slide of oil prices has delivered a major hit to the financial stature of Saudi Arabia, primarily because of their status as the world’s top oil producer. While that title has seemingly fluctuated in the past year with Russia, the economic punch that those two nations provide has the ability to provide an…
During an economic forum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea came to an agreement on May 11 that brings the two countries together on a variety of business projects. One of those is an agreement that will help finance what will be the region’s largest terminal for oil storage….
Though the impact of Saudi Arabia within the American oil market has been diminished over time, their ability to maintain a very clear presence once again came into focus on May 1. That was when Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom’s state-run oil company, finalized an agreement to take complete control of the largest oil refinery in…
