Gasoline

The price of gasoline is a major interest to almost everyone in the country and almost

everywhere in the world. It seems that every month or even more frequently, gas prices

are either rising or dropping but never staying stable. Gasoline prices are affected by

many factors, including the price of crude oil in the world market, supply and demand for

gasoline, local market competition, temporary supply interruptions, government

regulations, or taxes. Gasoline is produced by a distillation process where crude oil is

heated and fumes are captured and converted into many products such as kerosene, jet

fuel, and gasoline to name a few. Therefore the price of crude oil, which is extracted

from oil wells beneath the earth's surface, is a major factor in gas prices. The five

leading oil producing countries and their approximate shares of the world supply of oil

are: Soviet Union 21%, Saudi Arabia 17%, The United States 15%, Venezuela 4%, and

Mexico 4%. These five countries made up 61% of the worlds oil production back in

1980. Even though the United States is a major producer of oil, it does not make them

self-sufficient. The United States uses more oil than they can produce and must look

toward foreign countries. Therefore, the United States is forced to deal with an

organization called O.P.E.C. The reason the United States goes through O.P.E.C., is not

only in its own interests, but also in the interests of its allies and in the interest of

maintaining world peace. O.P.E.C. which stands for Organization of Petroleum

Exporting Countries, is made up of 13 countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,

Venezuela, Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador,

and Gabon. It controls approximately four fifths of the worlds oil reserves in the

non-Communist world. O.P.E.C. was founded in Baghdad, Iraq in September of 1960.

The headquarters were initially set in Geneva, but were later moved to Vienna in 1965.

O.P.E.C. was... [continues]

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