OPEC disbanded
Organisation of Hydrogen Exporting Countries founded

OPEC has disbanded itself at a historic meeting in Geneva. At the same meeting representatives of all the former oil-exporting member states founded the Organisation for Hydrogen Exporting Countries, OHEC. At its end OPEC had been producing over 95 per cent of its energy exports with hydrogen from energy obtained from the sun. In Saudi Arabia alone some 4,000 square miles of desert are bordered by photovoltaic panels. For some years now oil has only been extracted in small quantities for special plastics and medicinal products.

The Saudi Arabian Energy Minister, Schams El Arab, said in Geneva that the turning point in OPEC's energy policy began to made shortly before the Climate Conference in Berlin in 1995. "We had no other choice. Either we had to concentrate on alternative energies or go under, because it was no longer possible to sell oil in large quantities."

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