48. Editorial Note

On March 6, 1975, OPEC capped a 3-day summit in Algiers by issuing a 14-point “Solemn Declaration.” The points most relevant to the industrialized oil-consuming nations included: the agreement “in principle to holding an international conference bringing together the developed and developing countries,” but one that “can in no case be confined to an examination of the question of energy” and “includes the questions of raw materials of the developing countries”; the declaration that “their countries are willing to continue to make positive contributions towards the solution of the major problems affecting the world economy, and to promote genuine cooperation which is the key to the establishment of a new international economic order”; the recognition of “the present disorder in the international monetary system and the absence of rules and instruments essential to safeguard the terms of trade and the value of financial assets of developing countries”; and an expression of the belief that “an artificially low price for petroleum in the past has prompted over exploitation of this limited and depletable resource and that continuation of such policy would have proved to be disastrous from the point of view of conservation and world economy.” [Page 164] (Telegram 630 from Algiers, March 7; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, D750080–0645)

The next day, March 7, the International Energy Agency Governing Board addressed the last point by reaching an agreement on a “minimum price concept” and “other elements” from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s February 3 speech (see footnote 4, Document 39). The Board also recommended to the European Community, Japan, and the United States that they accept France’s invitation to a preparatory producer/consumer conference, referred to as “Prepcon.” (Telegram 5952 from USOECD Paris, March 7; Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Country Files for Europe and Canada, Box 4, France—State Department Telegrams to SECSTATE–NODIS (3))

At its March 20 meeting, the Board formally adopted a “three-tiered alternative sources policy” that included the “establishment of agreed common minimum price level below which imported oil will not be sold in domestic economies” and the “identification of price level by July 1, 1975.” Furthermore, because the Board felt that “satisfactory progress in the three areas of consumer solidarity” had been made, it formally recommended that the IEA membership accept France’s invitation to the Prepcon, which Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders believed appeared “more and more likely to result in little precise agreement.” (Telegram 7179 from USOECD Paris, March 20; ibid.)