The attributes of oil and the history of the oil market have truly given it great power. As the british scholar susan stranch said, the important historic milestone is not the establishment of the organization of petroleum exporting countries (opec), but the effective intervention of opec in the market 10 years later. During this period, the international oil market experienced massive upheavals: in 1971, the united states president, nixon, announced the decoupling of the dollar from gold; in 1973, the collapse of the bretton woods system, the international monetary system, became a major cause of oil price increases; in 1973 and 1979, two oil crises broke out; and in 1985, oil prices reached a low level. Following the establishment of opec, oil-producing countries gradually took over oil assets and thus controlled the global oil market. Oil prices are dominated by the official opec prices, which are priced “onshore prices in the persian gulf plus freight costs from the persian gulf to the point of delivery”. Arab light oil replaced western texas medium oil as a pole oil. During the same period, the volume of transactions in spot markets continued to expand. The interruption of the supply of oil from 1973 to 1974 forced many consumers to buy oil from the spot market, which was followed by spot trading. In the mid-1980s, spot trading, which initially represented only a small percentage of the global oil trade, had accounted for almost half of the global oil trade. The price of spot transactions was initially a reference for opec pricing and subsequently replaced the official opec prices entirely. In the 1980s, high oil prices led to a significant reduction in oil demand and excess production capacity, and oil-exporting countries (including between opec and non-opec, within opec) fought for their market share globally. Saudi arabia's abandonment of its role as a “balance producer” led to a sharp drop in oil prices by increasing production in order to compete for its market share. In 1986, oil prices in the middle east fell to $6 per barrel, causing a third crisis in the oil market - this time, it was not consumers, but producers. With the spread of cars in developed countries, another feature of the 1980s was the transformation of transport into a major oil consumer. The holiday drive season and the winter heating season have led to significant seasonal differentials in oil demand, resulting in a closer link between oil consumption and economic growth and weather conditions. In the way markets operate, opec administrative pricing is gradually replaced by market prices. Notably, oil futures, an oil derivative designed to avoid risk during this period, emerged. In 1978, the futures contract for heating oil (nymex) was introduced at the new york business transactions institute (nymex) as the earliest oil futures species。
