María del Mar Rubio (Departamento de Economía. Universidad Pública de Navarra. Pamplona, España)
Using it vs selling it. Energy consumption of energetic resources exporting countries
Latin America counts among its nations relative large reserves of oil, natural gas, and more recently found, coal. The region also concentrates some of the largest hydro-electrical producing countries in the world, both in absolute and in per capita levels; A number of Latin American countries have, at different times over the past century, being among the largest exporters of such energetic resources to the world. Some of them play at present relevant roles in different energy markets. In fact, most of the oil and a large part of the coal produced in Latin America are actually consumed elsewhere. As a consequence, Latin America as a whole is, and has historically been, a low energy consumer region. In fact the total primary energy supply per capita was in 2007 the second smallest in the world after Africa. Taking a long term view on these issues, making use of a century long database on energy consumption and production in the region, spanning the 20th century, this paper explores whether this apparent contradiction holds at the national level: are energy producing countries in Latin America using their endogenous energetic resources less intensively than energy producing countries elsewhere? And compared with countries with no domestic endowments of energetic resources? Why despite the typical nationalistic rhetoric about domestic resources energy use has historically remained so low in countries facing no energy constraints? What is the role of export royalties on the configuration of the energy models of these countries? What lessons can be extracted from the energy models of energetic resources exporting countries in Latin America?
