CHALLENGES TO OPEC'S PRICING POLICY: WILL FLEXIBLE PRICING RETURN?

by Hossein Tahmassebi

The following article by Dr. Hossein Tahmassebi, Chief Economist and Director of Market Research at Ashland Oil Inc., is based on a paper presented at the Fourteenth Annual Energy Conference in Boulder, Colorado, on 23 April 1987.)

After an unrelenting, year-long drive to raise its share of the world crude oil market, OPEC decided in December 1986 to abandon its flexible pricing strategy. Instead,...