A cartel is an organisation of producers grouped together for their own benefit. The most well known cartel in existence today is OPEC, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Its members are some (but not all) of the most important oil producing countries including Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Most cartels try to raise prices at the expense of consumers. The aim of this essay is to determine whether OPEC has been a successful cartel, this will …showed first 75 words of 1622 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1622 total…a downward pressure effect upon prices, therefore decreasing OPEC's control on prices. Hence, profit margins being damaged. The future for OPEC may well see more adverse effects occurring. As the problem of oil being a scarce resource becomes present, free market sources will look towards a substitute for oil. This may well see the demand for oil decreasing in the long term. Once again this will lead to OPEC losing its competitiveness as a cartel.