OPEC is a group of countries that pump a lot of oil from the ground and sell it. The letters stand for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. They try to agree, more or less, on how much oil to put on the market. If everyone sells at once, the price can fall; if they hold some back, the price can rise. Saudi Arabia is the name you will hear most. The group shows up in the news when petrol gets expensive. Taiwan is not in OPEC; it buys oil, it does not sit at that table. People usually say OPEC as a word, “OH-peck,” not letter by letter. Though actually, members do not always keep the deal, and other big producers sit outside the club, so OPEC does not “control oil” in the cartoon way some headlines suggest.