Energy in Latin America: Production, Consumption, and Future Growth

The Program on Resources: Energy and Minerals of the East-West Center has been engaged in research on energy and resource issues in Latin America since 1989. The program's Latin American Energy Project is a natural outgrowth of ongoing research on energy developments in the Pacific basin. The project studies the development of the Latin American hydrocarbons sector in order to assess its interactions with the Western Hemisphere energy market and its linkages to other markets; to facilitate dialogue between public-and private-sector executives in the United States and in other countries of the region, as a means of furthering market stability, energy security, and investment opportunities; and to promote policies that provide for sustainable development of the hydrocarbons industry in the region.

Energy in Latin America: Production, Consumption, and Future Growth is based partly on the fourth report in the Program on Resources's Latin American/ Caribbean Oil and Gas Report Series. With the assistance of Ms. Cynthia Obadía, Dr. Kang Wu summarizes in this book the recent developments in the Latin American energy sector and presents projections of future energy consumption, production, and balance for selected Latin American countries and for the region as a whole. While focusing on the oil and gas sector for each country, the study also covers the coal, hydroelectricity, and nuclear power sectors. Forecasts of the primary energy consumption and oil product consumption for individual countries and for the region as a whole are based on a comprehensive assessment of overall economic development, projections of population and real GDP growth, recent energy consumption trends, and changes in energy prices and energy intensity. Stressing the importance of Latin American oil to the United States, the author also indicates that the net export capacity of Latin America has a significant impact on the rest of the world including the Asia-Pacific region, which itself is a huge oil importer.

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