OPEC’s role in the world’s oil industry
OPEC’s global crude oil production share is approximately 38 percent and it also accounts for 16 percent of the world’s natural gas production. Moreover, OPEC owns roughly four-fifths of global crude oil reserves. Given the high dependence of the world economy on oil and gas, OPEC’s influence on the world market is evident. In April 2023, OPEC and 10 additional oil producing countries that are collectively known as OPEC+ released a surprise announcement that it would collectively cut crude oil output by some 1.16 million barrels of oil per day from May through December 2023, after output was already cut by two million barrels daily in October 2022. The planned oil output decrease immediately led to a five percent increase in crude oil prices, and is expected to increase oil prices by as much as 10 U.S. dollars per barrel overall, according to some analysts.In 2021, daily oil production in OPEC countries stood at some 31.7 million barrels. Saudi Arabia is by far the largest crude oil producer and also leading the list of global oil exports of OPEC countries. In 2021, about 6.2 million barrels were exported from Saudi Arabia per day. That was nearly one-third of the total OPEC crude oil exports that year. OPEC’s net oil export revenue, excluding Iran, was 570 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.