The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, has been a notoriously opaque and mysterious organization. In this book, Fadhil J. Chalabi, an insider who spent many years at the heart of the organization as Iraq's permanent undersecretary for oil, invites us to discover the intrigue and arguments that have shaped OPEC policy since its inception in 1960. The author interweaves his analysis with first-hand experiences that give authenticity to momentous events, including the infamous 1975 Vienna hostage-taking when Carlos the Jackal kidnapped a number of OPEC ministers, including the author. From the time of Egypt under Nasser, Gaddafi’s Libya, Saddam’s Iraq, and Khomeini’s Iranian revolution, Chalabi uses his unique position and his unparallelled insider knowledge to illuminate an organization that has, at times, been accused of fomenting economic turmoil, political unrest, and even military action.