The Organization carries out its functions and responsibilities through the following four organs:     

1.The Council of Ministers

The Council is the supreme authority of the Organization, responsible for drawing up its general policy, directing its activity, and laying down the rules governing it.

The Council is concerned with the following:

-       Deciding on applications for membership and approving invitations to petroleum exporting countries to attend its meetings.

-       Adopting resolutions, making recommendations, and advising on matters related to the Organization’s general policy or its position or the position of a particular member or members vis-à-vis specific issues.   

-       Approving draft agreements reached by the Organization.

-       Issuing the necessary regulations and amendments thereto.

-       Approving the draft annual budgets of the General Secretariat and the Judicial Tribunal, and ratifying the end-of-year accounts.

-       Appointing the Secretary General and Assistant Secretaries.

The Council is composed of petroleum ministers or comparable officials from each of the member countries.  The chairmanship of the Council rotates annually among the representatives in the alphabetical order of their countries. 

The Council convenes at least twice a year.  Extraordinary sessions may be convened at the request of a member country or the Secretary General.    

2.The Executive Bureau

The Executive Bureau assists the Ministerial Council in supervising the Organization’s affairs and has the following competencies:    

-       Preparing the Council’s agenda. 

-       Approving and when necessary amending the regulations applicable to the staff of the General Secretariat.

-       Reviewing the Organization’s draft annual budget as prepared by the Secretary General and submitting it to the Council for approval.

-       Submitting suggestions and recommendations to the Council on matters related to articles of the Agreement and the execution of the Organization’s activities.    

               The Executive Bureau is composed of one representative from each of the member countries.  The chairmanship rotates annually in the order followed by the Ministerial Council.  

3.General Secretariat 

The General Secretariat plans, administers and executes the organization’s activities in accordance with the objectives stated in the Agreement establishing OAPEC and with the resolutions and directives of the Ministerial Council.  The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General who is also the official spokesman and legal representative of the Organization and is accountable to the Council.  The Secretary General, as stipulated in the Agreement, may be aided by a number of Assistant Secretaries. The Secretary General directs the Secretariat and supervises all aspects of its activities.  

The General Secretariat is composed of the following:  

The Secretary General’s Office

A Legal Expert is attached to the Office of the Secretary General.  His duties include providing legal opinions on matters referred to him by the Secretary General, preparing and drafting the organizational and administrative orders issued by the Ministers, preparing draft recommendations and decisions for their approval; as well as minuting the proceedings of their meetings.

The Arab Center for Energy Studies:

The Technical and the Economics Departments, together, comprise the Arab Center for Energy Studies, whose formation eas called for by the Council of Ministers in 1982.

 The Technical Affairs Department   

The Technical Affairs Department monitors and prepares studies on developments in the petroleum industry both on the Arab and international levels, as well as those affecting other sources of energy.  It also organizes and participates in the relevant conferences, seminars, and workshops.  It manages OAPEC’s Data Bank and provides it with data.  In addition, the department carries out the organizational tasks related to the OAPEC Award for Scientific Research.    

The Economics Department

The Economics Department conducts research and presents studies related to energy affairs in the member countries and worldwide, as well as contributing sections to periodicals published by OAPEC, and providing the Data Bank with data.  The department is entrusted to foster economic relations with the regional and international institutions and participates in the preparations for the Arab Energy Conference (AEC), and various seminars. 

The Information and Library Department

The Information and Library Department carries out the organization’s media activity by publishing books and periodicals, monitoring the energy affairs in the Arab and international press; as well as providing OAPEC staff and visiting researchers with bibliographical services.     

OAPEC Library holdings comprise 26,513 books, 5277 documents, 556 periodicals, in addition to the Judicial Tribunal library, the depository library (containing OAPEC publications), and several reports and departmental studies. The Library collections’ are dealing mainly with subjects related to energy and its renewable sources, particularly oil and gas, and their upstream and downstream industries, including exploration, production, refining, and petrochemical industries; besides the economic aspects of energy and petroleum, such as prices, supply and demand, marketing, etc. The Library collections also cover the areas of economics and development, the world economy, commerce & international economic relations, finance & public finance, technology transfer, environmental studies, international law, as well as petroleum, economic, financial, and commercial legislation.

The Library provides regular services mainly to OAPEC researchers and to researchers of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), and the Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (both at the same headquarters). Visitors from several academic and private institutions in Kuwait are also welcomed to utilize the Library, particularly the Kuwait University, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), in addition to oil companies, embassies, and other Arab corporations. The Library provides services as follows:

-       Information: The Library performs the work of data entry, collected from recent Arabic and English publications, using the CDS/ISIS system. Retrieval of information, responding to inquiries, as well as provision of reference services, are also offered to OAPEC and non-OAPEC researchers.

-       Documentation: Documentation services are provided, containing the bibliography of OAPEC quarterly journal Oil and Arab Cooperation, and the bibliographical list entitled New Books in OAPEC Library, published in the OAPEC Monthly Bulletin.

-       Indexing and Classification: The Library provides indexing and classification services using UDC system.

-       Current Awareness: The Library issues a fortnightly file containing copies of the content pages of the latest books and periodicals acquired.

-       Lending: Lending services to OAPEC and other researchers from the Arab Organizations Headquarters are provided by the Library.

Finance and Administrative Affairs Department 

The Department consists of the following three sections:  The Accounting and financial Affairs Section monitors the compliance of actual expenditure with the amount approved in the OAPEC budget, for both the General Secretariat and the Judicial Tribunal, and prepares the year-end accounts to be approved by the Executive Bureau and the Council of Ministers. The Personnel Section supervises implementation of OAPEC’s by-laws concerning staff affairs.  The Public Relations Section is entrusted with providing for proper working conditions in the Organization.    

4.Judicial Tribunal   

The Judicial Tribunal is the fourth OAPEC organ created under the Agreement.  It was established by a special Protocol that was signed in Kuwait on May 9, 1978.  The Protocol was attached to the Organization’s Agreement and came into effect on April 20, 1980.  Judges of the Tribunal were first elected on May 6, 1981.

The protocol stipulated that “the Tribunal shall consist of an uneven number of judges of Arab citizenship, who shall not be less than seven and not more than eleven.

1.  The Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the following disputes:

-       Disputes relating to the interpretation and application of the Agreement and settlement of the liabilities arising therefrom.    

-       Disputes arising between two or more member countries concerning petroleum operations, so long as they do not infringe on the sovereignty of any of the countries concerned.    

-       Disputes which, The Ministerial Council decides, are within the competence of the Tribunal.

2. Upon consent of the disputing parties, the Tribunal may rule on the following:

-       Disputes arising between a member country and a petroleum company operating in its territory.

-       Disputes arising between one member country and the national oil company of another member.

-       Disputes arising between two or more member countries, apart from the provision of (1) above.

The Judicial Tribunal also has an advisory jurisdiction enabling it to give its opinion on issues referred to it by the Ministerial Council.  The rulings of the Tribunal are considered final and binding on the disputing parties and in themselves carry the authority of the executive power in territories of member countries.