Qatar has announced its withdrawal from Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries from January 2019.

• Qatar will become the first gulf country to leave OPEC.
• Qatar has been member of the OPEC since 1961.
• Its decision has come after it is under boycott from its neighbouring gulf allies including Saudi Arabia since August 2017.
• It is to be noted that Qatar is world’s largest exporter of LPG and 17th largest exporter of Crude. It holds around 2% of the world’s global oil reserves.

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries: OPEC is intergovernmental organisation of 15 oil-exporting nations that coordinate and unifies the petroleum policies of its member countries.

• It was established in 1960 in Baghdad in Iraq.
• It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
• Its member countries are from Africa, Latin America and Asia. African members include Algeria, Angola, Libya, Congo, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Its Asian members include Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar. Its Latin American members include Ecuador and Venezuela.