On this day in 2016, OPEC Member Countries and Azerbaijan; the Kingdom of Bahrain; Brunei Darussalam; Equatorial Guinea, which later joined OPEC; Kazakhstan; Malaysia; Mexico; the Sultanate of Oman; the Russian Federation; the Republic of Sudan; and the Republic of South Sudan, met at the OPEC Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and decided to establish the DoC as a platform for cooperation and dialogue in the interest of oil market stability. Other producers attended the meeting in support of these extraordinary efforts.

The pivotal decisions taken at the inaugural OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting built on the successful ‘Algiers Accord’ signed in Algiers, Algeria, on 28 September 2016 at the 170th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the OPEC Conference and the subsequent ‘Vienna Agreement’ decided on 30 November of the same year in Vienna, Austria, at the 171st Meeting of the OPEC Conference.

OPEC Secretary General, HE Haitham Al Ghais, said, “The Declaration of Cooperation is an unprecedented collaborative framework of 23 oil-producing countries that is based on trust, mutual respect and dialogue. Six years later, the framework continues to play an instrumental role in supporting market stability, which is essential for growth and development, as well as attracting the necessary investment to ensure energy security.”

The DoC aims to secure sustainable oil market stability through cooperation and dialogue, including at the research and technical levels, for the benefit of all producers, consumers and investors, as well as the global economy at large.

The commitment of the DoC participants to a stable oil market has once again been evident following the severe oil market contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts have supported the global pandemic recovery process, and have been recognized at the highest levels of government and by other international organizations and academia.