OPEC is the international oil cartel that has been around since 1960. The organization began in Baghdad, Iraq and the founding members were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. The Middle East is home to more than half the world's reserves of crude oil, but the South American nation of Venezuela potentially holds the world's largest single-country reserves of the energy commodity. Throughout the years, OPEC had been a dominant force in the international oil market with the ability to influence prices dramatically at times.
In a recent article for Seeking Alpha, Robert Boslego