The Full form of OPEC is Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 13 oil-producing countries; Algeria, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Venezuela. OPEC has its headquarters at Vienna in Austria; initially, during the first 5 years of its existence, it was in Geneva, Switzerland.
It was founded in Baghdad on 14th September 1960 by the first 5 members namely; Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and Venezuela, and headquartered in Vienna, Austria since 1965. Its member countries accounted for an estimated 81.5 percent of the world’s “proven” oil reserves and 44 percent of global oil production as of September 2018, giving OPEC a major influence on the prices of oil globally that were previously determined by the so-called “Seven Sisters” grouping of multinational oil companies.
Its key functions are; coordinating the policies with regard to petroleum products of the member countries, providing economic aid and technical assistance to its member countries, focusing on setting the prices of oil on the world market by managing the supply of oil, and holding meetings at regular period of times to discuss important and relevant issues related to petroleum products like production, distribution, pricing, etc.