Full Title: Filling the Gap: How the US Energy Boom is Shaping Latin American Refining Markets
Author(s): Lisa Viscidi
Publisher(s): The Dialogue: Leadership in the Americas
Publication Date: March 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The shale revolution in the United States marks one of the most dramatic shifts in the global oil industry in decades. After more than 20 years of declining output, US crude oil production increased by some 75% between 2008 and 2014, making the United States the largest oil producer in the world. The implications of this shift are being witnessed across the globe, perhaps most importantly in neighboring countries of the Western Hemisphere, which have long served as a natural market for crude and oil product trade with the United States. For Latin America and the Caribbean, a region facing growing demand and a widening deficit of refining capacity, the United States has now emerged as the leading supplier of imported oil products.
However, to what extent this trend will continue depends on multiple factors, including fluctuations in US oil demand, the fate of the US crude export ban, and Latin America’s push to increase refining capacity. The success of policies to curb demand in Latin America, such as the elimination of fuel subsidies, increased vehicle efficiency standards, and the promotion of alternative transportation, will also play an important role in future oil product demand.