The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is an intergovernmental organisation of oil-exporting states with its secretariat at Helferstorferstraße 17, A-1010 Vienna, Austria. Established in 1960, it is led by Secretary General HE Haitham Al Ghais, and its website carries a 2026 copyright. The organisation is best known for coordinating the petroleum policies of its members and for the market data and outlooks it publishes from Vienna.

Members and mandate

Twelve countries are listed as members: Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Beyond its own membership, OPEC maintains formal frameworks with producing countries outside the organisation — the Declaration of Cooperation and the Charter of Cooperation — and publishes its OPEC Long-Term Strategy. Its governing documents, including the OPEC Statute and Solemn Declarations, are available on the site.

The Secretariat in Vienna

The Secretariat is organised into the Office of the Secretary General, a Legal Office, a Research Division and a Support Services Division. The Research Division contains data services, energy studies, petroleum studies and environmental matters departments, while the Support Services Division includes the Public Relations and Information Department. An Appeals Committee handles disputes under its own rules and registrar. OPEC also runs an academy programme for external researchers and students, comprising the Vienna Energy Scholar Programme, the Visiting Research Fellow Programme, the Summer Fellowship Programme, internships and a secondment programme, and it publishes vacancies for member-country nationals and other nationalities.

Research and publications

The organisation's research output is widely used across the industry and includes:

  • Monthly Oil Market Report, covering supply, demand and price developments.
  • Annual Statistical Bulletin, a long-running compilation of member-country oil and gas data.
  • World Oil Outlook, its long-term energy outlook.
  • OPEC Reference Basket, the price reference for member crude grades.
  • OPEC Bulletin and the annual report, plus titles such as Who Gets What from Imported Oil?, I Need to Know and the commemorative volume OPEC 65 years and beyond.

Meetings and dialogue in 2026

OPEC's public calendar during 2026 has combined ministerial meetings with producer-consumer and bilateral dialogues. Its press releases record the 8th High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-China Energy Dialogue on 23 September 2026 and the 7th High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-India Energy Dialogue on 22 September 2026, both held in the run-up to the reporting date. Earlier in the year a joint statement on 6 September 2026 saw Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman reaffirm their commitment to market stability, and the 67th Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee took place on 2 August 2026. The Secretariat also runs the OPEC Seminar and a set of annual awards — for journalism, research, the best energy research institute and the best energy research paper — with the 2027 editions open for entry.

Contact

The Secretariat publishes a postal address and a central telephone number, +43-1-211 12-0, and directs enquiries through an online contact form on its General Inquiries page rather than a general e-mail address. Media enquiries, group visits and information centre visits are handled through separate pages, and an extranet serves member-country users. OPEC maintains accounts on Facebook, X, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram, and publishes data policy, disclaimer and terms pages alongside a warning about fraudulent job offers using its name.