I believe everyone has heard the analysis of many economists. There are generally two reasons. One is that the plunge in oil prices led to the decline of a series of oil companies such as bp, Shell and Total, which drove the market. The other is that the United States, South Korea and a series of other countries failed to cope with the epidemic, which led investors to worry about a series of factors affecting the economy, such as work stoppage and infection, leading to panic selling.

Of course, we are Cheyou Daily and dare not talk about economic theory professionally, so we won't talk about the economic principle behind oil prices this time. Let's talk about the history of international oil prices and the output game between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia, which caused the sharp drop in oil prices.

Since Daimler and Maibakh jointly developed the first gasoline engine in 1883, crude oil has played an increasingly important role in human history. Until today, it has become the most important commodity at present. The pricing history of oil prices can basically be divided into three stages.

Pricing of multinational oil companies

The first stage is the pricing of multinational oil companies. At the beginning of the 20th century, the major oil consuming countries in the world were basically established capitalist countries such as Britain, France and the United States, while the major oil producing countries were mostly located in today's OPEC region. On the one hand, it is an old imperialism, and on the other hand, it is a small country that has just got rid of semi-colonialism. Obviously, it is up to you.

Therefore, there was basically no market space for oil prices at that time, and multinational oil companies had the final say as representatives of big countries. Simply put, these companies sign contracts with oil-producing countries to pay rent, and the contract is about oil prices. The excavated crude oil is transported back to China for refining and sales, and the open spot trading is less than 1% of the total trading volume.

The reason behind this situation, to put it bluntly, was that there was little oil at that time, and the output of crude oil could not meet the needs of all countries in the world. At this time, the old big countries will use their own economic and military strength to suppress oil-producing countries and ensure that crude oil is given priority to themselves and the price is not too high. At that time, there were seven similar multinational oil companies, also known as "Seven Sisters".

OPEC pricing stage

In the 1970s, several major events happened. First of all, oil production has finally come up. 1970, American crude oil production reached its peak at that time, and the United States even began to restrict domestic crude oil exploitation. If there is no shortage of domestic production, there is no need to continue to control oil-producing countries with high mountains and high waters. Coupled with the gradual decline of Britain at that time, it gradually withdrew its troops from the Gulf region. At that time, there was a power vacuum in the oil-producing countries, so the internal forces of various countries rose in succession at that time and began to strive for greater voice in crude oil pricing. In this case, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) came into being at 1960.

There are three classic performances. First, many countries nationalized oil fields at that time. 1960, the headquarters of Aramco was moved from San Francisco to Doha, Saudi Arabia. After years of struggle, Aramco was gradually nationalized by Saudi Arabia in 1972. 1973 The Saudi government took a 25% stake in Aramco, which rose to 60% in 1974 and reached 100% in 1980. Second, oil-producing countries began to demand an increase in the export tax rate of crude oil, which was finally set at 55%. The third and final victory was that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to use Saudi Arabian light crude oil as the "reference price" of international oil prices in the mid-1970s, which indicated that oil-producing countries finally had their own right to speak in crude oil pricing. Since then, international oil prices have formed a mechanism for oil-producing countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and multinational oil companies to negotiate pricing.

Exchange pricing

It stands to reason that in the pricing stage of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil-producing countries and demand countries have reached an alliance, and both sides have already talked about things, so there is no need to change. But no one expected that with the further development of the oil industry, there are more and more demand countries and more oil-producing countries. This leads to two results. On the one hand, these countries also want to have their own right to speak. On the other hand, oil trading is a long process. Crude oil can reach buyers in a few days or weeks. Whether to pay first and then deliver, or pay first and then deliver, and whether to pay according to the price on the delivery date or the price on the receipt date may involve more than one billion funds at any time. At this point, the main driving force of futures has been formed.