Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) What is OPEC? The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an agglomeration of 12 oil-producing states. The members are United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Algeria, Kuwait, Iran, Libya, Qatar, Iraq, Venezuela, Ecuador and Angola. The significance of this organization is that its members are the world’s largest producers of crude oil. This is attributed to the abundant amounts of crude oil they have in their oil wells. Turmoil in the member-states Oil being the world’s primary source of energy greatly increases its demand. For this reason, OPEC countries have been continuously competing over control of its supplies.