The global oil industry: The location of production - Middle East domination or regionalization?

Between 1955 and 1975, under increasingly competitive conditions, low-cost Middle East oil supplies gradually achieved the dominant role in the global oil market. Thereafter, radically changed political relationships undermined the Middle East's position and led to a resurgence of geographically dispersed oil production. There are now alternative prospects for the industry's development; either the re-establishment of Middle East domination under a return to low-price oil or the emergence of regional oil (energy) markets, perceived as able to ensure supply continuity, built around the three groupings of OECD countries and, in each case, their proximate oil producing peripheries.