Energy in South America: Facing a new challenge

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Preface (excerpts)

This is the fifth edition of Energy in South America. Since the first edition up to now, South America has
undergone significant changes. The privatization and deregulation processes in the 90s were followed by
deep crises in several countries, which generated in some territories political and economic instability.

With the arrival of new governments with a tendency toward greater government involvement and the constant rise in the price of oil, the energy situation in the region has taken a new turn. Some countries are taking advantage of this situation to attract significant capital inflows to develop their energy industry, while others are attempting to enforce greater government involvement and tax pressure.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a general overview of the regional energy industry and its prospects.
Section 1 presents an “Overview of the Energy Industry in South America”, with a general outlook of current events and trends in the region and future prospects. Section 2 provides a general analysis of each country. Lastly, Section 3 provides economic and energy statistics.