The concept of a systematic producer-consumer dialogue emerged in the 1970s as a part of the general reorganisation in the global political and economic order with energy markets transforming the structure within individual countries as well as power balances and relations between countries. In the wake of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, consumers and producers recognised their joint interest in the stability of the oil market, creating greater awareness, and understanding sensitivities toward each other's interests.
