Some articles on the increasing problems of delivering reliable energy MEXICO: Mexico is currently facing one of the biggest economic recessions in the country’s two hundred-year history of independence. Some Mexican policy makers blame the economic crisis on this year’s decrease in tourism, while others attribute it to the continued dependence of the Mexican economy on the United States, pointing to its neighbor’s recession as a principal cause for the country’s woes. Nonetheless, Mexico’s plummet in oil production and the decline in the price of oil are two main contributors to its present economic downfall. While other countries have begun to pull out of the recession, it appears that the fall in oil production and prices have further led to an ongoing decline in Mexico’s economy, which the country’s planners are finding difficult to reverse.
Full: http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=2495 VENEZUELA: Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela With oil revenues declining and the economy slowing, the shortages may have no quick fixes in sight. The government announced some emergency measures this week, including limits on imports of air-conditioning systems, rate increases for consumers of large amounts of power and the building of new gas-fired power plants, which would not be completed until the middle of the next decade. Skepticism also persists over another plan — to develop a nuclear energy program — because it would require billions of dollars and extensive training of Venezuelan scientists at a time of budget shortfalls and falling oil production. Potential diplomatic resistance to Venezuela’s cooperation on nuclear matters with Iran could slow these ambitions further. FULL: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/americas/11venez.html?_r=1&ref=world CUBA/RUSSIA Cuba, Russia Sign First Post-Soviet Oil Deal. Cuba and Russia signed an agreement Monday to allow Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft to explore for and produce oil in Cuba in their first post-Soviet oil pact. "The contracts that were signed are tremendously important for Russia and Cuba, since they will guarantee cooperation over the next 25 years," said Nikolai Brunich, a Zarubezhneft official after inking the deal with the head of Cuba's state oil company Cubapetroleo (CUPET), Fidel Rivero. Cuban authorities announced in October 2008 that Cuba had crude reserves of 21 billion barrels - more than double previous estimates. A major Cuban oil find would be a tropical Cinderella story for the only communist country in the Americas. FULL: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/AsiaOne%2BNews.html ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
