CNN News: 形势所迫 沙特俄罗斯再一次举起合作大旗

Whenever you hear about oil, the word OPEC isn`t far behind. OPEC stands for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

说起石油，人们就会想起OPEC组织。OPEC指的是石油输出国组织。

It`s a group of 12 nations that have a lot of (INAUDIBLE) in the energy market because they produce about one third of the world`s total oil and export it around the globe. That`s about 30 million of barrels of oil every single day. It was formed in 1960. The goal: to coordinate oil production to insure that members are pumping enough supply to meet demand.

OPEC现有12个成员国。并且这12个成员国在能源市场占有举足轻重的地位，石油产量约占世界石油产量的1/3，出产的石油销往全球各地。大约每天3000万桶油。该组织成立于1960年，目的是协调各国石油政策，满足世界石油供应。

If all 12 countries play by the rules, it can help to regulate and stabilize global oil prices. But there were also plenty of major oil-producing nations that are not part of the OPEC club, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Russia. And they don`t attend OPEC meetings, and as such, they`re not bound by the decisions.

若12个成员国遵守规则，将有助于调节稳定全球石油价格。但一些主要的石油生产国仍不是OPEC成员，如美国、加拿大、墨西哥和俄罗斯。这些国家不参加OPEC会议，也不受相关决策的约束。

And as these nations have increased their production over the past few years, OPEC`s influence in the market has plunged.

在过去几年这些国家石油产量增加，OPEC在能源市场的影响力就随之下降。

There`s now an excess of oil supply, which has pushed down prices significantly. The price drop has caused political problems in some OPEC countries that rely on oil sales heavily to fund their governments.

石油供应量过剩导致石油价格下跌。而石油价格下降就会引一些依赖石油销售的OPEC成员国的政治问题。

OPEC does not want to lose that influence. That`s partly why it continues producing oil at a record rate even as global oil prices stay very low. Yesterday, there was a meeting between OPEC member Saudi Arabia and non-member Russia. They were looking at ways to work together to help reduce the world`s oversupply of crude oil and raise the price of it.

为了继续维持OPEC的影响力，尽管全球石油价格很低，成员国继续以创纪录的速度生产石油。昨日，OPEC成员国沙特阿拉伯和非成员国俄罗斯举行会面。他们正在一致寻求减少世界原油供应过剩、提高价格的办法。

The agreement they reached was to freeze their oil production levels where they are, not increase them, not decrease them. And because that`s not expected to have much impact on the world`s oil supply, international prices dropped again yesterday.

他们达成的协议是冻结石油生产水平。因为这并不会对世界石油供应产量产生太大影响。昨日国际油价再次下跌。