Since you seem to know quite a bit about this, can I ask for a bit more clarification on the reserves to production quota? How exactly does it work? Is the quota directly proportional to reserves, ie if a country doubles its reserves it basically doubles it's quota? And is that an upper limit or a mean production value?

Thanks.

The quota system was never to my knowledge actually predicated on reserves. They talked about it, everyone inflated their reserves, then they quietly dropped the idea when they saw each other cheating like mad.

Stuart Staniford's excellent graphic from his article What would we have predicted for Kuwait? is referenced below and clearly shows the odd shape of the OPEC reserves increases, all coming within a span of a few years and not accompanied by any one single discovery anywhere in the Middle East!

Ghawar Is Dying
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. - Dr. Albert Bartlett