8.2.1 Several Important Global Energy Governing Agencies
Highly influential governing agencies on today’s energy market include OPEC,
consisting of the main oil-producing countries and the IEA, made up of developed
industrial countries. Founded in 1960, currently OPEC has 12 members, all of
which, except Iran, Iraq and Libya, are WTO members. OPEC is dedicated to the
stability and prosperity of the world’s oil market, guaranteeing the interests of
producers and consumers and safeguarding the interests of oil-producing countries
through collective negotiations; it exercises control mainly through oil production
quotas. OPEC’s Council of Ministers meets twice a year and determines the total oil
output quota on a one-vote-one-right basis; generally, after the total quota is
determined, it is allocated to member countries; in order to ensure that the price of
oil on the international market is stable, production is limited when the price is
relatively low, while production is increased when the price is relatively high. In
January, 2012, the daily output determined by OPEC was 30 million barrels; given
the change of member countries, the specific allocated output was adjusted some-
what. As OPEC member countries control 78 % of the global oil reserves, 40 % of
the oil output and 60 % of the oil trade, OPEC exerts a great but a non-decisive
impact on the global energy market.
The IEA is an industrial country energy consumption organization established as
advocated by the USA in 1974 and is designed to counter OPEC’s control over the
international energy market. Currently, it has 28 members, all of which come from
the OECD. The IEA’s purpose is to conduct policy coordination under a collective
energy security system so as to achieve an energy supply commensurate with
reasonable prices; its main control means is a strategic petroleum reserve system
and oil consumption restriction measures. The 1974 IEA Treaty requires that
member countries have to have strategic oil reserves equivalent to a 90-day net
importation and member countries must use reserves or share with other member
countries in case of a supply interruption. In 2009, the main IEA member countries
had 4.2 billion barrels of strategic reserves, among which national reserves and
commercial reserves accounted for 40 and 60 % respectively; the USA’s reserves
made up 43 %, amounting to 727 million barrels; the EU has no unified strategic
reserves; its strategic reserves are distributed in its member countries, but where
necessary, the EU can regulate reserves in its member states.
Within today’s energy market, besides the well-established governing agencies
—OPEC and the IEA, the following organizations also play their roles.
- The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). It was established in 2001. The
main forces insisting on its establishment were Russia, Iran and Qatar (con-
trolling 57 % of the global natural gas reserves); currently, it has 12 full
members and 3 observers (The Netherlands, Norway and Kazakhstan).
The GECF controls 70 % of the global natural gas reserves, 85 % of the natural
gas output and 38 % of the natural gas pipeline trade. The purpose of the GECF
is to build a transparent natural gas market and to guarantee the interests of
158 X. Yanping