which countries are part of opec

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) currently has 13–15 member states, depending on whether recently inactive or suspended members are counted, but the core list of active oil‑exporting members is well established.

Core OPEC members

Most up‑to‑date lists of OPEC countries include the following states as current or very recent full members.

• Algeria (joined 1969)

• Angola (joined 2007; membership has lapsed in some recent lists)

• Congo (Republic of the Congo) (joined 2018)

• Equatorial Guinea (joined 2017)

• Gabon (joined 1975, left, then rejoined in 2016)

• Iran (founding member, 1960)

• Iraq (founding member, 1960)

• Kuwait (founding member, 1960)

• Libya (joined 1962)

• Nigeria (joined 1971)

• Saudi Arabia (founding member, 1960)

• United Arab Emirates (joined 1967)

• Venezuela (founding member, 1960)

These are the countries most commonly treated as the current OPEC core in recent overviews of the organization.

Countries with lapsed or suspended membership

Some states were OPEC members but later suspended or ended their membership, so older sources may still show them in the list.

• Qatar – member from 1961; withdrew effective January 2019.

• Ecuador – joined 1973, left in the 1990s, rejoined, then exited again.

• Indonesia – long‑time member whose membership has been repeatedly suspended.

• Angola – appears as “lapsed” in some recent membership tables.

These countries are often mentioned in OPEC histories but may not be part of the current decision‑making group.

OPEC vs. OPEC+

A lot of recent energy‑market discussion focuses on OPEC+ , which is a wider cooperation framework between OPEC and several major non‑OPEC oil producers.

• Non‑OPEC states often listed in OPEC+ include Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Oman, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain, Brunei , and others.

• These countries coordinate production policy with OPEC but are not formal OPEC members.

Bottom line: when people ask “which countries are part of OPEC,” they usually mean the 13 core members listed in the first section, while also recognizing that some former members and OPEC+ partners are closely tied to its decisions.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.