Since its founding in the early 1960s, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has often been subject to conflicting assessments by oil importing countries and even by radical organisations from time to time.

In the mid-1970s, Opec was held culpable by importing nations for the doubling in oil prices, while a radical group led by Venezuela’s Carlos (the Jackal) led an attack on an Opec meeting and took some ministers hostage.

All these signal the significance of Opec in the global energy industry, despite occasional attempts to belittle its role. It is difficult to ensure the stability of oil supplies and prices as Opec is the only organisation that can maintain such a balance.

Stemming from this fact, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the arm of the oil-consuming industrial countries, asked Opec last week to increase production by 1 million barrels a day in the second-half of the year to bring about a balance in the global market as it would experience a substantial seasonal rise in demand.

The agency’s call coincided with the near-halt in Libya’s oil production, which used to supply more than 1.5 million barrels a day. The IEA’s call also coincided with the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, where ongoing battles have taken place near oil fields and refineries and threatens the export of 2.6 million barrels a day.

This means that the agency is anticipating events and getting ready to deal with them.

The IEA is urging Opec members to prepare for the worst, by noting that surplus oil production is concentrated in Saudi Arabia, which has already announced that it would cooperate to curb oil price rises by pumping more to compensate for shortfalls in Iraq if the situation deteriorated further. This means that the agency’s call for Opec to increase oil output is not associated with growing demand only.

At its last regular meeting in Vienna, Opec agreed to keep the oil production ceiling unchanged, estimated at 30 million barrels a day, until the next meeting in November.

However, rapid developments in some major oil-exporting countries will impact decisions on future supplies. Keep in mind the security concerns are happening against a backdrop of still fragile global economic conditions, which depend on consistent energy supplies at affordable prices.

Welcome signs of recovery have emerged in many countries, including within the EU bloc, the US and Japan.

The evidence of recovery in these countries can be detected in the spike for global oil demand, expected to rise from 91 million barrels a day in the first quarter to 94 million bpd in the fourth, a relatively large increase. This clearly indicates the global economic recovery is expected to gain in pace over the next few months.

Despite Opec’s continued cooperation with international organisations, including its key rival, the IEA, it is still being criticised as the main cause of the crisis, at a time when no one can imagine stability in global energy markets without Opec, whose members have made sacrifices over the years — either by pumping more oil to find a balance between supply and demand or by working to staunch escalating prices in times of crisis, as is happening.

Therefore, importing countries and their representatives have to change their negative perception of Opec and not keep blaming it just because it is the key player in the oil market. They must extend bridges of cooperation with Opec, since Opec members usually respond positively and flexibly to such entreaties, and particularly the GCC countries.

Such a move by the IEA and its media entities would support and ensure supply in oil markets. It will also help strengthen confidence between producers and consumers, especially in times of crisis and during times of rapid and complicated political and security developments.