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October 25, 2005
New Kid on the Rig
The immediate after effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and (now) Wilma have been under consideration in the past few months, but their collective effect on the developing world has received considerably less coverage.
One such residual issue has been the price of petroleum in Latin America, which, in the case of Nicaragua, has undergone one of the most precipitous hikes in national history.
In a story in 7 Días, the author notes that hurricane season initialed a phase of "irrational consumption" of strategic reserves on the part of the U.S. This, in turn, has forced reductions in petroleum exportation in the western hemisphere as a whole.
The article notes that the impact of refineries should be minimized in due time, and that the $65 oil barrels and a 20% increase in domestic energy prices should also go the way of the dinosaur (lest Nicaragua truly suffer). The most interesting facet of this article, however, is the notion that China's staggering growth rate and increasing petroleum consumption has had one of the most adverse effects on the energy needs of the developing world.
Will China soon bear the label of an imperial power with its rapacious appetite for resources and markets? And what will be the role of American interests in this new model?
Posted October 25, 2005 01:38 AM
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