In 2016 OPEC and 10 major producers—including Russia—launched OPEC+

OPEC can roll out production cuts among its members to control oil’s global supply and price

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was created to coordinate and unify petroleum policies to secure fair and stable prices. During the pandemic, for instance, the organization pushed through production cuts in an attempt to stabilize prices.

OPEC has grown from five to 12 members since 1960

OPEC’s official members page features profiles for all 12 current member countries—Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Venezuela—detailing their joining history, national data, and links to individual country pages.

Explore OPEC’s official webpage

OPEC’s official website offers a comprehensive hub for its core work—featuring press releases, monthly and statistical reports, digital publications like the World Oil Outlook and Annual Statistical Bulletin, and other research center materials.

OPEC often intervenes to influence the price of oil

This guide explains how investing in oil works with in-depth explanations of each of the forces that control oil’s price. Oil is unique as a commodity in part because of OPEC’s role in regulating its price.

As of 2022, the US accounted for nearly one-fifth of global oil production

By 2022, the US had cemented its position as the world’s top oil producer with close to 18 million barrels per day. This eclipsed Saudi Arabia and Russia.

OPEC’s 1973 embargo sparked the first global energy shock

In October 1973, Arab OAPEC countries stopped or significantly reduced oil exports to nations backing Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Crude prices nearly quadrupled, sparking global shortages, economic recession, rationing, and major energy policy reforms.

View a breakdown of worldwide oil production since 1900, mostly led by the US

When analyzing the production of crude oil, shale oil, oil sands, and condensates since the start of the 20th century, Saudi Arabia produced more crude oil only in 1977, from 1979 to 1981, and from 1991 to 2016. Nations such as Iraq and the United Arab Emirates produced much smaller quantities than both Saudi Arabia and the US.

Oil prices have been volatile for decades

This explainer shows oil’s rollercoaster: OPEC-led embargoes in the 1970s, shale surges in the 2000s, and the US flip to becoming a net oil exporter in 2020.

Spare capacity is the amount of oil production that can be brought online within 30 days and sustained for at least 90 days

Specifically, a country’s “spare capacity” signifies the difference between its maximum sustainable oil production and its current output. OPEC member countries hold nearly all of the world’s spare oil production capacity. Historically speaking, Saudi Arabia has been the country with the largest spare capacity.

Unless prices of fossil fuels rise significantly, their production is expected to slow

US oil and natural gas production skyrocketed from 2000 to 2020, largely due to advances in fracking. However, weak global energy prices have prevented this boom from translating into increased profits for fossil fuel companies.

Trace the rise of oil: from early drilling to today’s global power

This animated map video vividly illustrates how petroleum shaped global politics and industry—from 18th-century uses and 19th-century drilling booms in North America to today’s OPEC strategies, shale revolution, and geopolitical oil influence.

About 10% of the world's crude oil and 32% of its natural gas is reached via fracking

Most of the world's shale oil resources—which are recoverable via fracking—are found in Russia, the US, China, Argentina, and Libya. The majority of equivalent shale gas resources are found in China, Argentina, Algeria, the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Oil markets are seeing higher costs and lower prices amid tech breakthroughs

Experts say oil demand has not yet reached its peak. Recent technological breakthroughs in the oil industry include advances in drilling and extraction, as well as subsurface technologies.

Oil prices spiked when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022

The price of a barrel of Brent crude experienced volatility in the early 2020s. This chart shows price spikes at the beginning of the pandemic and again when Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Seven Sisters were a dominant midcentury Western oil consortium

Amid the fallout of World War II, Western multinational corporations expanded their control of the production of oil across the oil-rich Middle East, earning the pejorative nickname of the Seven Sisters. In the 1970s, the group’s role diminished as nationalist movements pursued sovereign control of the oil.

BP only makes up about 1% of global oil production after many missteps

BP’s market cap has never recovered from the dive it took following the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill. This video details some of BP’s corporate missteps along the way.

Commodity traders are the most powerful people you've never heard of

Just beneath the surface of the global economy is a hidden layer of dealmakers for whom war, chaos, and sanctions can be a great business opportunity—they're called commodity traders. Their power partly stems from the fact that commodities are essentially the building blocks of the economy at large.

As oil revenues decline, many Gulf States are investing in professional sports through sovereign wealth funds

Gulf States—including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—have invested tens of billions of dollars in professional sports, owning high-profile soccer clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Many of these investments have been characterized as an increase in these countries' soft power, or global cultural influence, in Western countries, where the Middle East remains relatively misunderstood.

The G20 emerged from the 1997 Asian financial crisis as a forum for managing the global economy

Established in 1999 and elevated to a leaders' summit during the 2008 financial crisis, the G20 now unites the world's largest economies to address issues that the Bretton Woods institutions were not designed to manage.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

How amendments to the Montreal Protocol have expanded global ozone protections

Since 1990, five major amendments—London, Copenhagen, Montreal, Beijing, and Kigali—have accelerated chemical phase-outs, added new substances, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and tightened enforcement.

The world is shifting from unipolarity toward a multipolar order

The post-Cold War world was briefly unipolar after 1991, with the US standing alone as a global superpower following decades of US-Soviet bipolarity. Analysts increasingly describe today's order as multipolar, with China, Russia, the US, and regional powers all competing for influence.

Mapping projected food inflation across the world in 2026

Iran tops the list of hardest-hit countries with a projected 56% inflation on food prices in 2026, followed by Argentina (33%) and Turkey (25%). In the opposite direction is Niger, whose food inflation is expected to drop 18% as a result of strong harvests and financial stabilization. The global average of food inflation is expected to be 3%.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps became one of the most powerful forces in the Middle East

Created after the 1979 revolution to protect the new Islamic Republic, the IRGC grew into a force that controls Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, funds, and arms regional proxy groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and answers directly to the supreme leader.

Modern examples of oligopolies include the airline industry

An oligopoly is a market structure dominated by a few key suppliers. In the US, as of 2021, just four airlines (Delta, United, Southwest, and American) controlled nearly two-thirds of all domestic flights, making the US airline industry one example of an oligopoly.

Porsche briefly made Volkswagen the most valuable company in the world in 2008

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, hedge funds began placing short positions on German automaker Volkswagen. Around the same time, Porsche began acquiring a majority stake in Volkswagen, which decreased the amount of available shares, or the "stock float." Porsche then announced that it owned more than 74% of the company, prompting short sellers to realize they had placed more short positions than were logistically possible given that less than 6% of the company's shares were available to trade. In what is largely recognized as the biggest short squeeze in history, Porsche made $10B, and hedge funds lost more than $30B.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

An Ebola vaccine was developed during the 2018 west African Ebola outbreak, but the 2026 Ebola outbreak is with a different species of the virus, not the one that the vaccine is approved to treat.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.