Saudi Arabia is one of the world's major oil-producing countries and is a key force in the organization known as OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This organization has become more vital in world affairs in the last two decades and in the lives of Americans ever since the oil crisis of the early 1970s when OPEC limited exports and raised prices. Developing the oil sector has been a vital element in the economic well-being of Saudi Arabia, and this effort has been of vital interest to the West as well. Protection of the oil fields must be seen as one of the key elements in the Gulf War, for instance, as U.S. and other troops worked to protect Saudi Arabia from any incursion from Iraq and to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait, another oil-producing nation. An examination of the role of Saudi Arabia in OPEC will indicate the nature of the oil sector in that country, the dimensions of the Saudi role in OPEC, the present situation, and the outlook for the future.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a creation of this century, and the House of Saud has ruled the country since its foundation. Abd al Aziz bin Abd ar Rahman Al Saud was the one who established the state through a combination of tribal conquest and diplomatic maneuvering over a period of 25 years, and in 1932 he proclaimed the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, named after the House of Saud and ruled by its first two monarchs as if it were a tribal confederation. The first ruler was succeeded by his son Saud, and in 1964 Saud's brother Faisal ascended the throne after Saud was deposed. At that time, the nation was nearly bankrupt, left with a set of tribal attitudes and methods and badly in need of modernization. The chance for such modernization existed in the revenues being generated by the discovery and exploitation of oil. Nyrop (1984) writes:
By the year of his death Faisal had managed to take steps to ensure that the vastly incr...