Outlook for the international oil market and options for OPEC

A fundamental misinterpretation of post-1970 events in the international oil market has severely curbed oil demand and led to conditions in which much of the world's lowest cost reserves of energy are in danger of remaining unexploited. There is, instead, an increasing use of inherently higher cost sources of energy, so undermining world economic growth prospects. A return to the preferential use of low cost oil (and gas), without further exacerbating already strained North-South relationships, can now only be achieved in the context of a difficult-to-negotiate OPEC-OECD agreement on a long-term development strategy.