Editing OPEC (section)

===1960–1975: Founding and expansion===
[[File:Wien - OPEC-Zentrale (b).JPG|thumb|alt=refer to caption|OPEC headquarters in Vienna (2009 building)]]
The following month, during 10–14 September 1960, the Baghdad Conference was held at the initiative of Tariki, Pérez Alfonzo, and Iraqi prime minister [[Abd al-Karim Qasim]], whose country had skipped the 1959 congress.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8U_sWfvgToQC&pg=PA74 |last=Styan |first=David |title=France and Iraq: Oil, Arms and French Policy Making in the Middle East |publisher=I.B. Tauris |date=2006 |page=74 |isbn=978-1-84511-045-1}}</ref> Government representatives from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in [[Baghdad]] to discuss ways to increase the price of crude oil produced by their countries, and ways to respond to unilateral actions by the MOCs. Despite strong US opposition: "Together with Arab and non-Arab producers, Saudi Arabia formed the Organization of Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC) to secure the best price available from the major oil corporations."<ref>{{cite book |last=Citino |first= Nathan J. |year=2002 |title=From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Sa'ud, and the Making of US-Saudi Relations |url=https://archive.org/details/fromarabnational00nath |url-access=limited |location=Bloomington |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=978-0-253-34095-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fromarabnational00nath/page/n20 4]}}</ref> The Middle Eastern members originally called for OPEC headquarters to be in Baghdad or Beirut, but Venezuela argued for a neutral location, and so the organization chose [[Geneva]], Switzerland. On 1 September 1965, OPEC moved to [[Vienna]], Austria, after Switzerland declined to extend [[diplomatic privileges]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Skeet |first=Ian |title=OPEC: Twenty-Five Years of Prices and Politics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jg80AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24 |isbn=978-0-521-40572-0 |access-date=17 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617124502/https://books.google.com/books?id=Jg80AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24 |archive-date=17 June 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the time, Switzerland was attempting to reduce their foreign population and the OPEC was the first intergovernmental body to leave the country because of restrictions on foreigners.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19650629&id=zhpbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=404NAAAAIBAJ&pg=7157,5955607|title=Switzerland Reduces Her Foreign Population|language=en|work=The Telegraph|date=1965-06-29}}</ref> Austria was keen to attract international organizations and offered attractive terms to the OPEC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=OPEC: Thank you Austria – thank you Vienna! |url=https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/3157.htm |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=www.opec.org}}</ref>

During the early years of OPEC, the oil-producing countries had a 50/50 profit agreement with the oil companies.{{sfn|Colgan|2021|loc=The Rise of OPEC, pp. 73–78}} OPEC bargained with the dominant oil companies (the Seven Sisters), but OPEC faced coordination problems among its members.{{sfn|Colgan|2021|loc=The Rise of OPEC, pp. 73–78}} If one OPEC member demanded too much from the oil companies, then the oil companies could slow down production in that country and ramp up production elsewhere.{{sfn|Colgan|2021|loc=The Rise of OPEC, pp. 73–78}} The 50/50 agreements were still in place until 1970 when Libya negotiated a 58/42 agreement with the oil company [[Occidental Petroleum|Occidental]], which prompted other OPEC members to request better agreements with oil companies.{{sfn|Colgan|2021|loc=The Rise of OPEC, pp. 73–78}}> In 1971, an accord was signed between major oil companies and members of OPEC doing business in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] region, called the ''Tripoli Agreement''. The agreement, signed on 2 April 1971, raised oil prices and increased producing countries' profit shares.<ref name="OPEC_1971_Tripoli_Agreement">[[Marius Vassiliou]] (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. {{ISBN|0-8108-5993-9}}.</ref>

During 1961–1975, the five founding nations were joined by [[Qatar]] (1961), [[Indonesia]] (1962–2008, rejoined 2014–2016), [[Libya]] (1962), [[United Arab Emirates]] (originally just the [[Emirate of Abu Dhabi]], 1967), [[Algeria]] (1969), [[Nigeria]] (1971), [[Ecuador]] (1973–1992, 2007–2020), and [[Gabon]] (1975–1994, rejoined 2016).<ref name="OPEC Member">{{cite web |url=http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm |title=Member Countries |access-date=7 January 2020 |work=OPEC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107050155/https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm |archive-date=7 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the early 1970s, OPEC's membership accounted for more than half of worldwide oil production.<ref name=MarketShare/> Indicating that OPEC is not averse to further expansion, [[Mohammed Barkindo]], OPEC's acting secretary general in 2006, urged his African neighbors Angola and Sudan to join,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/4374140.html |title=Angola, Sudan to ask for OPEC membership |agency=Associated Press |date=3 December 2006 |access-date=4 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604205524/http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/4374140.html |archive-date=4 June 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Angola]] did in 2007, followed by [[Equatorial Guinea]] in 2017.<ref name=May2017Vienna>{{cite press release |url=http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/4305.htm |title=OPEC 172nd Meeting concludes |publisher=OPEC |date=11 March 2019 |access-date=26 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527214657/http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/4305.htm |archive-date=27 May 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Since the 1980s, representatives from Canada, Egypt, Mexico, Norway, Oman, Russia, and other oil-exporting nations have attended many OPEC meetings as observers, as an informal mechanism for coordinating policies.<ref name=observers>{{cite news |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/09/opec-fifty-years-regulating-oil-market-roller-coaster/ |title=OPEC: Fifty Years Regulating Oil Market Roller Coaster |agency=Inter Press Service |date=14 September 2010 |access-date=23 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224104031/http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/09/opec-fifty-years-regulating-oil-market-roller-coaster/ |archive-date=24 December 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>