Change sweeping South American oil sector
Change is sweeping South America's petroleum industry. In each of the continent's major oil and gas producing countries, efforts are under way to boost activity in all petroleum sectors. It is part of a wave of change involving democratization, privatization, economic reform, and pursuit of free market principles that began in earnest in South America during the 1980s. Moreover, South America's rapidly changing petroleum industry is the vanguard for similar changes likely to spread throughout Latin America and the Caribbean Sea. State oil companies are being buffeted by reform and restructuring, often clashing with government leaders, as they seek to exploit a massive indigenous petroleum resource second only to the Middle East. Most of these countries look to their petroleum sectors as the engine of economic growth in the 1990s, through revenues from exports and/or reduced outlays for imports. Critical to that effort is the push to attract foreign participation in the form of capital and technology. Barriers are falling all over South America as new market oriented governments reform fiscal regimes and petroleum laws to improve their countries' attractiveness for foreign investment. At the same time, subsidies for domestic fuel prices, long the bane of state oil companies, are being selectively phased out to improve the state companies' bottom line.
- OSTI ID:
- 5716440
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal; (USA), Vol. 89:2; ISSN 0030-1388
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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