Vietnam: What is OPEC? How many countries are currently members of OPEC?

Hello, Lawnet would like to answer as follows:

What is OPEC?

OPEC is an acronym for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (translated into Vietnamese as Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), established to unify and coordinate the oil policies of member countries. Currently, the official goal of OPEC is to stabilize the crude oil market, including oil exploitation policies and world oil prices.

How many countries are currently members of OPEC?

OPEC was established at the Baghdad conference held from September 10-14, 1960, including 5 member countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

During its operation, up to now, OPEC has recorded 08 new members including:

+ Algeria (since 1969);

+ Angola (since 2007);

+ Republic of Congo (Since 2018);

+ Equatorial Guinea (from 2017);

+ Gabon (1975 - 1995, from 2016 to present);

+ Libya (since 1962);

+ Nigeria (since 1971);

+ United Arab Emirates (since 1967).

There are 3 countries that used to be members but are no longer members, including:

+ Ecuador was a member from 1973–1992, and from 2007–2020.

+ Indonesia was a member from 1962–2008 and from January–November 2016;

+ Qatar was a member from 1961 - 2019.

So, up to now, OPEC currently has 13 countries as members of the organization.

What is OPEC?

OPEC+ is an alliance of oil-producing and exporting members inside and outside the OPEC organization, established in 2016 to resolve issues related to oil market uncertainties as well as strengthen members' geopolitical leverage.

On September 23, 2016, OPEC countries approved the milestone "Algiers Agreement", in which an important decision was made to establish a high-level committee for dialogue and discussion between OPEC and other oil producing countries. This led to the signing of the "Vienna Agreement" in November 2016 and the "Declaration of Cooperation" (DoC) between OPEC and other major oil exporting countries in December 2016.

Currently, OPEC+ has 23 members, including 10 major oil-producing countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Bahrain, Mexico, Oman, South Sudan, Sudan, and Malaysia) and 13 OPEC members.

Are gasoline prices in Vietnam affected by OPEC?

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 38 of Decree 83/2014/ND-CP (amended and supplemented by Clause 27, Article 1 of Decree 95/2021/ND-CP), the principles of operating gasoline prices are as follows:

Petrol and oil price regulation principles

1. Petrol and oil prices shall follow market mechanism and be regulated by the State according to oil price changes in the world and current socio-economic developments.

2. Major petrol and oil traders and petrol and oil distributors are entitled to decide the wholesaling prices. Major petrol and oil traders and petrol and oil distributors may decide retailing prices (except mazut which must be wholesaling prices) in their distribution systems according to actual costs incurred. Retailing prices must not exceed the regulated prices announced by competent authorities.

In an area that are far away from ports, major depots, petrol and oil production facilities, if the increase in actual (and audited) costs are legitimate and causes the selling prices to exceed the regulated prices, the major petrol and oil trader may decide the actual selling prices in such area (as notified to the Ministry of Industry and Trade) to cover the cost increase by up to 2% of the regulated prices announced at that time.

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According to the above regulations, the regulation of Vietnam's petroleum prices must be consistent with world petroleum price developments, in which OPEC and OPEC+ have a great influence on the world petroleum market. Therefore, OPEC's impact on world petroleum prices increasing or decreasing also indirectly affects petroleum prices in Vietnam.

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