Desarrollo energético en América Latina y la economía mundial

DESARROLLO ENERGÉTICO EN AMÉRICA LATINA y LA ECONOMÍA MUNDIAL lopment and produetion of new reserves and the balance, $ 16.8 bi· Ilion, is estimated to be needed in secondary recovery measures 15 • It is obvious, given the magnitude of capital requirements. that no one source of finance can be expected to provide the needed funds. If production targets are to be reached then finance will have to be forthcoming from national treasuries as part of development effort; from international oil eompanies; from international capital markets; and from both traditional and OPEC aid donors. In a major poliey shift. the World Bank has recently decided to enter the field oi petroleum resource development by providing loans to selected countries. Although the Bank had loan-tested this particu– lar t:ype of activity recentIy, it was not until the Declaration from the Bonn Summit of Jul:y 17, 1978, that the Bank decided to step up its activities in this field. The entry of the World Bank in this field of investment will be limited primarily to the development phase. This is in keeping with its traditional poliey of extending loans to projects that are assured of sufficient return. Since 'VorId Bank loans are designed to provide a fraction of projeet finanee needs this means that private capital will play an important role in the development of energy resources in Third World countries. This is already shown by the fact that a number of countries (Indonesia, Chile, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, etc.) found it necessary to change their petroleum polícies to enable foreign capital to enter the field of energy 16. V. CONSERVATION AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES 'OF ENERGY Any analysis of this questíon must be prefaced by three observations. First, per capita: energy consumption in the developing countries is but a smalI fraction of that in the developed countries. Second, there is a higher degree of dependence on oil in the developing countries than in the developed countries. Third, the scope for conservation is much smaller and narrower in the developing countries than in deve· loped countries. AH these differences stem from the historical fact that the developed countries were in a position to complete their industrial transformatíon in an era of cheap energy. The problems 16WQrld Bank, Petroleum ond Gas ir¡ Non-OPEC DeveloPíng Countries 1976·198.5 (Staff Working Paper N9 289. April. 1978). ~orId Bank. Energy and Petroleum, op. cit. 42