Which 5 countries founded the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960?

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was originally founded on September 14, 1960 in Baghdad by its first five members- Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The impetus for such an organization started in 1949 when Venezuela and Iran took the earliest steps in the direction of creating OPEC, by inviting Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to improve communication and share data among petroleum-exporting nations recovering from WWII.

As of September 2018, there are 13 member countries that account for 44% of the global oil production and 81.5 % of the world’s “proven” oil reserves, giving OPEC a major market share and influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by the so-called “Seven Sisters” grouping of multinational oil companies. The ‘Seven Sisters’ was a common term for the 7 transnational oil companies, dominating the global petroleum industry from the mid 1940s to the mid-1970s.

Today, the OPEC headquarters is located in Vienna, Austria and the official language of OPEC is English.

The stated mission of OPEC is to “coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic, and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.”