Energy as a Market, Common or Political Good? How to Understand Energy Policies in Latin America Today.

• In Event: Structures of Resource Extraction

Abstract

Latin America, as a region, provides with quite a diversity of experiences in regards to oil and gas policies. From the oil-driven Socialism of the XXI Century of Venezuela, the renewed heavy industrialization efforts from the Brazilian Pre-Salt oilfields, to the double-down bet on free markets by Colombia and the recent liberalization of Mexico’s Pemex regime. In most countries across the region, oil and gas carry lots of meaning for economic and development policies. This work proposes a succinct but clearly structured comparison of these policies among the main Latin American countries for the last two decades. While some countries have identified oil, gas resources as tradable goods deserving the encouragement of market institutions to maximize their monetary value, other nations have instead subjected the energy sector to careful planning and regulation as oil and gas are deemed a vital public good for national development, given its nature as crucial industrial inputs. Finally, a new use has clearly developed for oil and gas policies in other countries in Latin America, where some national leaders are projecting the resources extracted from the industry to one of a political common good.

Author

• Pablo A Heidrich, Carleton University