Matthew Smith

Latest articles from Matthew

• The Pandemic Will Not Crush Guyana’s Oil Boom

  Published 05 October 2020 | viewed 4,249 times

  There are growing fears that the COVID-19 pandemic will sharply impact deeply impoverished Guyana’s economy and fiscally vital oil boom. Newly appointed President of Guyana…

• Venezuela’s Crude Oil Industry May Never Recover

  Published 03 October 2020 | viewed 25,389 times

  Despite President Maduro’s claims of a looming recovery for Venezuela’s economically crucial oil industry in early 2020 production keeps declining. Even measures aimed at revitalizing…

• Can Colombia Overcome Its Natural Gas Crisis?

  Published 24 September 2020 | viewed 4,699 times

  Strife-torn Latin American country Colombia is facing an energy crisis which is being amplified by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and sharply weaker…

• Colombia’s Security Crisis Deals Another Blow To Its Oil Industry

  Published 22 September 2020 | viewed 5,898 times

  Violence has broken out yet again in strife-torn Colombia after a law student was killed by police in Bogota two weeks ago for allegedly breaching…

• Low Oil Prices Haven’t Derailed Brazil’s Offshore Boom

  Published 21 September 2020 | viewed 5,263 times

  Activity in Brazil’s energy patch keeps ratcheting ever higher. During January 2020, Latin America’s largest economy saw its all-important petroleum industry achieve a new milestone…

• Big Oil Sees Major Potential In Suriname

  Published 07 September 2020 | viewed 18,614 times

  Suriname is one of Latin America’s poorest countries. Up until July 2020, the former Dutch colony was mired in a political crisis that emerged from…

• Colombia’s Oil Industry Is Showing Signs Of Recovery

  Published 07 September 2020 | viewed 4,731 times

  While the August 2020 global rig count remains significantly lower than for the same period last year, because of oil’s protracted price slump, Colombia’s economically…

• The Threat Of Oil Nationalism In Argentina

  Published 06 September 2020 | viewed 13,523 times

  Latin America has a long history of resource nationalism, particularly when it comes to petroleum. Since the end of World War Two, this has acted…

• Venezuela Faces The Real Possibility Oil Production Dropping To Zero

  Published 01 September 2020 | viewed 12,887 times

  Venezuela once considered one of Latin America’s prosperous countries has plunged into the abyss. Years of economic mismanagement, cronyism and corruption have sparked a monumental…

• Colombia’s Oil Industry At Risk As National Security Crisis Worsens

  Published 28 August 2020 | viewed 12,421 times

  In a surprise move roughly one month ago Colombia’s Supreme Court ordered the house arrest of former President Àlvaro Uribe after allegations of witness tampering.…

• Can Guyana Salvage Its Much-Hyped Oil Boom?

  Published 25 August 2020 | viewed 13,592 times

  The deeply impoverished South American country of Guyana in recent years was heralded as the hottest new oil boom in the Americas. A series of…

• Russia Is Winning The Battle For Venezuela’s Oil

  Published 24 August 2020 | viewed 10,141 times

  In just over a year Venezuela, and the push to oust socialist leader President Nicolas Maduro, has gone from being one of the world’s hottest…

• Low Prices Put The Brakes On Peru’s Oil Ambitions

  Published 20 August 2020 | viewed 4,072 times

  One country often ignored when considering Latin America’s regional hydrocarbon sector is the Latin American country of Peru. Over the last two decades, the Andean…

• Colombian Oil Major Reports Surprise Profits Despite Market Downturn

  Published 12 August 2020 | viewed 2,602 times

  The March 2020 oil price crash and COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global energy sector hard. In response oil companies are slashing capital spending, driving…

• Argentina Scrambles To Salvage Its Shale Boom

  Published 05 August 2020 | viewed 12,615 times

  Only two years ago analysts were hailing Argentina’s emerging shale oil boom, which many believed would be the next major petroleum frontier in Latin America.…

• Can Oil Save Ecuador’s Economy?

  Published 27 July 2020 | viewed 16,160 times

  For decades, oil rich Ecuador proved to be a risky and unprofitable jurisdiction for foreign companies seeking to tap its vast mineral wealth. This peaked…

• The Quiet Destruction Of Colombia’s Shale Oil Potential

  Published 23 July 2020 | viewed 19,138 times

  Sharply weaker oil prices, falling investment and dwindling oil production are weighing heavily on Colombia’s economic outlook. Last decade, the strife-torn Andean country bet its…

• The World’s Newest Oil Boom Is Facing A Major Problem

  Published 22 July 2020 | viewed 29,229 times

  After a series of major offshore oil discoveries since 2015, with the largest ever made earlier this year, the tiny South American country of Guyana…

• Why COVID-19 Won’t Completely Crush Brazil’s Oil Boom

  Published 18 July 2020 | viewed 15,552 times

  Before the outbreak of COVID-19 and the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, an oil boom of monumental proportions was underway in Brazil,…

• Colombia’s Gamble On Oil Could End In Disaster

  Published 08 July 2020 | viewed 20,687 times

  The latest oil price collapse coupled with the considerable economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has battered Colombia’s fragile economy. As the strife-torn Latin American…