{"id":4608,"date":"2022-10-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/07-10-2022\/uss-no-oil-producing-and-exporting-cartels-nopec-bill\/"},"modified":"2022-10-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T00:00:00","slug":"uss-no-oil-producing-and-exporting-cartels-nopec-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/07-10-2022\/uss-no-oil-producing-and-exporting-cartels-nopec-bill","title":{"rendered":"US\u2019s No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Recently, the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) bill<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> was passed by a Senate committee which intends to protect U.S. consumers and businesses from engineered oil spikes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Background:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC\u2019s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Way to fight high prices of fuels:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">US legislation and antitrust lawsuits have emerged as a possible tool to tackle high fuel prices.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">But implementing it could also have some dangerous unintended consequences.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>What is the NOPEC bill?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Purpose of the Bill:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The bipartisan NOPEC bill would tweak U.S. antitrust law to <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>revoke the sovereign immunity<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> that has protected OPEC+ members and their national oil companies from lawsuits.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">If signed into law, the U.S. attorney general would gain the option to <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>sue the oil cartel or its members<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">, such as Saudi Arabia, in federal court.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Earlier a similar Bill was introduced but was not passed. What has changed now?<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Previous versions of the NOPEC bill have failed amid resistance by oil industry groups, including the top U.S. oil lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute (API).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">But anger has risen in Congress about gasoline prices that earlier this year helped fuel inflation to the highest level in decades.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Issue in the Bill:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">It is unclear exactly how a federal court could enforce judicial antitrust decisions against a foreign nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The United States could also face criticism for its attempts to manipulate markets by its planned release of 165 million barrels of oil from the emergency oil reserve between May and November.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">NOPEC would create further instability in the marketplace and exacerbate existing challenges in international commerce.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">\u00a0NOPEC legislation could ultimately lead to overproduction by OPEC, bringing prices so low that U.S. energy companies have difficulty boosting output. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries have some of the world\u2019s cheapest and easiest reserves to produce.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The Bill could lead to unintended blowback, including the possibility that other countries could take similar action on the United States for withholding agricultural output to support domestic farming.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:square\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">In 2019, for example, Saudi Arabia threatened to sell its oil in currencies other than the dollar if Washington passed a version of the NOPEC bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:square\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Doing so would undermine the dollar\u2019s status as the world\u2019s main reserve currency, reduce Washington\u2019s clout in global trade, and weaken its ability to enforce sanctions on nation-states.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>OPEC<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">It is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10\u201314, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>OPEC Secretariat<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> is the executive organ of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is located in Vienna.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">In 2016, OPEC allied with other top non-OPEC oil-exporting nations to form an even more powerful entity named OPEC+ or OPEC Plus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>OPEC+<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> came into existence, in part, to counteract other nations&#8217; capacity to produce oil, which could limit OPEC&#8217;s ability to control supply and price.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Objectives:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">To coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries .<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">To ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">OPEC+<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">It agreed to steep production cuts, curbing supply in an already tight market.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>Source<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\">: <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/what-is-nopec-the-u-s-bill-to-pressure-the-opec-oil-group-8193400\/#:~:text=The%20bipartisan%20NOPEC%20bill%20would,Saudi%20Arabia%2C%20in%20federal%20court\" style=\"text-decoration-line:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><span style=\"color:#1155cc\">IE<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) bill was passed by a Senate committee which intends to protect U.S. consumers and businesses from engineered oil spikes. Key Points Background: Several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC\u2019s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[57,30],"class_list":["post-4608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-effect-of-policies-politics-of-developed-developing-countries-on-indias-interests","tag-gs-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/6048530Screenshot_20221003-004203_Settings.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}