Big news from South America as new populist president Evo Morales brings all natural gas production under state ownership.
Call it the Chavez effect - national producers all over the world are realizing that their oil and gas supplies are a potent political weapon in these unsettled energy times….and they are adding to the uncertainty with their actions.
Bolivia’s actions follows Russia’s announcement last week that it may not give Western Europe a guaranteed market for its natural gas.
Couple these recent events with Venezuela flexing its petro-muscles, Iran adding it’s own cornered beast threats, and the continued role that China is playing in competing for world oil and you have petropolitics playing out on an unprecedented global scale.
Fascinating and horrifying to watch.
Just curious if some else read this month’s Atlantic piece on Chavez, and his agenda of tweeking Uncle Sam’s nose. The U.S., as usual, continues to play its Latin American Hand badly, much to the merriment of the Chinese, who remain active diplomatically in the area, and are still signing guaranteed resource supply deals.
Comment by peconomist — May 5, 2006 @ 12:47 am