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At present, however, the oil industry is notably low on financial energy. Because of rising costs, especially payments to producing countries and higher exploration costs, the average return of the seven largest international oil companies on the net worth of their Eastern hemisphere facilities fell from 14.1% in 1960 to 11.2% in 1970. The squeeze is so severe that the cash-hungry companies may urge the cash-heavy countries to invest in refineries, pipelines and tanker terminals in Europe.
Such shifts in the balance of power between oil possessors and oil users were very much on the minds of negotiators in Geneva. Both sides were bargaining for advantage, but neither seemed to know precisely where the best position lay. Said Gerrit A. Wagner, a senior managing director of Royal Dutch/Shell, the largest non-U.S. industrial business: "There is great concern in most OPEC countries that they will go too far and kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. They know that there is a point beyond which they should not raise the price. But they do not yet know where that point is, and neither do we."
* Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Venezuela and Indonesia.