OPEC+
A group of the 13 OPEC members plus Russia and other allied producers that coordinates crude oil output, together shaping a majority of the world's oil supply and reserves.
In plain language
One country pumping more or less oil barely moves the world price. A group of major producers acting together is different.
OPEC+ is that group. It is the OPEC cartel, plus Russia and other allied oil-producing nations. Together, their output decisions move the world price of crude.
How it works
The workbook describes OPEC+ as 13 OPEC members plus Russia, which together with the United States controls global oil market supplies. It puts the Middle East's share of the world's known oil reserves at 48%.
OPEC's own figures, stated separately from OPEC+'s wider membership, are striking: the cartel owns almost 40% of the world's crude oil, holds 75% of proven reserves, and exports 55% of the oil sold worldwide.
The workbook's price-driving-factors table treats an OPEC production cut as a positive factor for oil prices, and a production rise as a negative one — the group's output decisions are listed as the first driver in that table.
A worked example
The workbook's own 1973 oil crisis example: OPEC members raised prices roughly fourfold, to almost $12 a barrel, and banned oil exports to the United States, Japan and western Europe. A fourfold rise ending near $12 implies a pre-crisis price of around $3 a barrel — illustrating just how much leverage a coordinated producer decision carries over the world price, decades before OPEC+ itself existed in its current, Russia-inclusive form.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 4.8.2 (Case Studies — Energy: Crude Oil) and Chapter 4.9 (Historical Events, the 1973 oil crisis) both cover OPEC and OPEC+. Expect a question on the "13 OPEC members + Russia" composition, or one distinguishing OPEC's own reserve and export share from OPEC+'s wider membership.
Common exam traps
- OPEC and OPEC+ are not the same grouping. The workbook keeps OPEC+'s "13 OPEC members + Russia" figure separate from OPEC's own 75% proven-reserves and 55% export-share statistics — do not merge the two sets of numbers.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series XVRelated terms
- BrentThe benchmark crude oil price for oil produced in Europe and Africa, sourced from the North Sea and traded on ICE — one of the two global oil pricing benchmarks alongside WTI.
- NYMEXThe New York Mercantile Exchange, the global benchmark exchange for trading energy commodities — where WTI crude oil is priced and traded.
- Reserve currencyA currency, chiefly the US dollar, that central banks and cross-border commodity trade prefer to hold and settle in, because it is the most widely accepted and convertible currency.
- West Texas IntermediateA high-quality, low-sulphur crude oil explored and traded within the United States, priced on NYMEX, and one of the world's two benchmark crude grades alongside Brent.
- Export banA government prohibition on exporting a commodity, used to protect the domestic market, which tightens global supply and drives world prices higher.