Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 26, 1993                   TAG: 9312210255
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OPEC THROUGH THE YEARS

Dec. 23, 1973: Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki al-Yamani announces that OPEC will raise oil prices to $11.65 per barrel, effective Jan. 1. The increase, amid an Arab oil embargo against the United States, represents a fourfold increase over six months. Within days, the Nixon administration drops the national speed limit to 55 miles per hour and orders gasoline rationing coupons printed as a standby measure. They are never used.

Jan 23, 1974: The Interior Department grants a consortium permission to build the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. OPEC rises as a financial giant. Members post a combined $65 billion trade surplus, $60 billion above the 1973 level, and become major lenders and aid-providers. World economic output contracts, and inflation among developed countries hits 13 percent.

1977: President Carter builds domestic policy around energy conservation. In an April speech, he calls the United States "the most wasteful nation on earth," and says citizens face "the moral equivalent of war" in their need to cut energy use to avoid a "national catastrophe." Carter offers tax credits for homes and businesses that install energy-saving gear.

Nov. 4 1979: Iranian students seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking some 60 Americans hostage. Oil prices surge to $40 a barrel on U.S. intelligence reports, later denied, that Iran had quit shipping oil. U.S. inflation hits 13.3 percent, a 33-year high. On Dec. 27, Soviet troops invade Afghanistan.

Jan. 16, 1980: The Shah flees Iran amid domestic turmoil. On Jan. 25, Carter calls 1980 "a year of energy conservation" and blames "the skyrocketing cost of OPEC oil" for inflation that threatens his presidency.

1982: U.S. economy plunges into recession, output contracts 2.2 percent, inflation tumbles to 3.8 percent, and world oil glut builds.

March 14, 1983: Amid continued weak demand, OPEC cuts prices for its first time ever. Its output has fallen to 14 million barrels per day, less than half its 31-million-barrel-per-day peak four years earlier.

Jan. 4, 1985: World crude oil prices plumb a 6-year-low.

Oct. 4, 1985: OPEC concludes the latest in a series of emergency meetings aimed at buttressing prices by controlling supply, but members aren't holding to output limits.

May 3, 1990: Hoping to arrest a 25-percent price drop over five months, OPEC fails to control output. Saudis, Kuwaitis and United Arab Emirates are blamed for overpumping.

Aug. 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, giving Baghdad control of 20 percent of the world's known oil. Prices surge, but President Bush sends a massive force of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia, vowing that Iraq's aggression "will not stand."

Feb. 27, 1991: U.S. forces run Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and suspend military operations against Iraq.

March 11, 1991: OPEC calls for 5 percent output cuts, but prices continue a long slide.