International oil market and environmental issues

The use of oil will likely continue to propel the engine of world economies well into the next century, notwithstanding the trend towards non-fossil fuels. In the future the bulk of the incremental demand for oil will have to be supplied by members of the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries), suppliers of 3/4 of the world's oil. In these countries' consequent bid to expand production capacity, factors such as environmental taxes will become critical. A qualitative appraisal of such taxes is presented. Projections from future fiscal scenarios are also presented, particularly a scenario based on global market uncertainty and its effect on existing oil production capacity expansion programs. Concludingly, environmental taxation may discourage capacity expansion, but a low rate of expansion is deemed to be an optical strategy for OPEC members. To achieve stability, even just through a low-rate expansion, the responsibility must accordingly be shouldered by all countries.