The world lives on oil. Oil is the foundation for the plastics and petrochemical industries. Oil is fundamental to the welfare of the industrialised world and it is a major component of the farming industry.

The price of oil is reflected in most of the things we do. It impacts on the price of transport, the cost of goods and services, and the availability of many products, including food, water and shelter.

If oil prices are too high, then these goods and services become more expensive and economies experience inflation. Alternative forms of energy would also become more cost-competitive, but oil producers would eventually increase their supplies and prices would come back down.

If oil prices are too low, consumers would waste this non-renewable resource, investors would not be attracted to the industry and oil producers would suffer - especially the developing countries that produce oil, such as the OPEC Member Countries. If prices were too low, supplies would eventually fall until there was a price shock - leading back to inflation.

Oil prices that are too high or too low are clearly unhelpful for oil producers, oil consumers and the world at large. That is why OPEC makes quite sure that the market is not under-supplied with oil, forcing prices to go excessively high, and also that the market is not over-supplied so that prices go too low. It also speaks to other oil producers to encourage them to avoid over-supplying the market. It is also why OPEC talks to oil consumers to encourage them to adopt fair and equitable policies that do not discriminate against oil.

We would all suffer without steady supplies of oil at stable, reasonable prices.