Desarrollo energético en América Latina y la economía mundial

Professor Abbas Alnasrawi I ENERGY AND THE DEVELOPING COUNTJUES only 0.33% of the combined GNP supplied by the industrialized coun– tries, Second, OPEC assistance to other Third World countries was targeted to those countries with low per capita income. This is clearly reflected in the pattern of disbursements in 1976 when over 71% ol OPEC concessional disbursements went to the 45 most seriously affe– cted countries. Third, national savings of major oilexporting countries have displaced those of the industrialized countries as the ultimate net source of funds flowing in various forms to other developing countries ll • IV. MEETING THE ENERGY NEEDS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRlES It was indicated earlier that as countries accelerate their rate of economic growth, their demand pattern for energy changes. This meant that one effect of economic development was that the relative importance oí commercial energy increased and that of non-com– mercial energy decIíned. Within the structure of commercial energy, oil has continued to increase its share of this market regardless of whether a country was a net energy exporter or a net energy importer. It is interesting to note that both subgroups of NOnCs are selfsuffi. cient with respect to theid non-oilneeds. In other words, their consump– tion of gas, coal and electricity was met from domestic production. The main difference between these two groups revolves around their im. port/export of oí!. In 1975 the twelve net exporters of oH were able to produce 2.4 MBD and export 1.3 MBD (using 1.1 MBD for domestic consumption) . The value of their oH exports amounted to $ 4.3 billlon in 1975 and is projected to rise to $ 25 billion by 1985. The relative importance of oil exports to total exports is expected to increase from 22% in 1975 to 32% in 1985 12 , The problem of the oH importing countries is and wilI continue to be a serious one. For these countries there is actually more than one energy problem. The first is the rising demand for energy at a time when the cost of energy has increased. This is in the last analysis a problem of finance. These countries found themselves spending $ 14.3 billion on imported oil in 1975 or 14.3% of their total imports. In 1985 these countries were projected to spend $ 38 billion on their llFor details on OPEC financial assistancc see Ibrahim F. l. Shihata and Robcrt Mabro. The OPEC Aid Reco¡'d (Vienna, The OPEC Special Fund, 1978) and John T. Cummings et al" An Economic Anal)'sis 01 OPEC Aid (Vienna OPEC Bulletin Sup' plement, Septcmber 25, 1978). UWorld Bank, A l'rogram eo Accelerate, o,. cit., S9