Even with increased oil prices, the companies still held a dominant position over Venezuela. The posted price of oil was originally the determinant factor of the taxes that oil companies had to pay. This concept was beneficial to the oil companies because they were the ones who controlled the posted prices. Companies could increase the actual price of oil without changing the posted price, thus avoiding an increase in taxes paid to the producing country. Oil-producing countries did not realize that the companies were adjusting oil prices until the cost of oil dropped in the late 1950s and companies started reducing posted prices very frequently. The main reason for the reduction in oil prices was the change in the world's energy situation after 1957 that led to competition between energy sources. Efforts to find markets led to price cuts. Price cutting was first achieved by shaving profit margins, but soon prices were reduced to levels far lower than posted prices as companies producing oil in the Middle East started to offer crude to independent and state-owned refineries. Producing countries became aggravated when the companies would reduce the prices without warning. According to “The Significance of Oil,” “small reductions in posted prices in 1958 and 1959 produced some indications of disapproval from certain Middle East governments, but it was not until major cuts—of the order of 10 to 15 percent—were announced in 1960 that a storm broke over the heads of the companies whose decisions would reduce the oil revenues of the countries by 5 to 7 ½ percent.” High oil prices, on the other hand, raise the bargaining power of oil-producing countries. As a result, some say that countries are more likely to nationalize their oil supplies during times of high oil prices. However, nationalization can come with various costs and it is often questioned why a government would respond to an oil price increase with nationalization rather than by imposing higher taxes. Contract theory provides reasoning against nationalization. The Third World went through dramatic structural change in the decades after oil was first discovered. Rising nationalism and the emergence of shared group consciousness among developing countries accompanied the end of the formal colonial relationships in the 1950s and 1960s. Shared group consciousness among the oil-exporting countries was expressed through the formation of OPEC, increased contact and communication between countries, and attempts of common action among countries during the 1960s. The structure of the industry, which led to increased nationalistic mentality, was affected by the following important changes:  Originally, oil-producing countries were poor and needed oil companies to help them produce the oil and manage the oil reserves located within the country.