Matthew Smith is Oilprice.com's Latin-America correspondent. Matthew is a veteran investor and investment management professional. He obtained a Master of Law degree and is currently located in Latin America. Matthew writes on oil and gas, mining and infrastructure.
South America’s latest oil-producing nation, the former British colony of Guyana, is continuing to lay the groundwork for its oil boom. In 2015, global energy…
The controversial crude oil extraction technique hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, has long been touted as a solution to Colombia’s rapidly dwindling petroleum reserves. The…
Since President Joe Biden floated the idea of banning oil imports from Russia in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine there has been…
The strife-torn Latin American nation of Colombia punches well above its weight when it comes to petroleum production. The Andean country is the region’s third-largest…
Colombia’s economically crucial petroleum industry, which has been under pressure for some time from a combination of weaker oil prices and low proven reserves, is…
For over a decade the deeply impoverished and mountainous South American nation of Ecuador has battled to revive its flagging oil industry. Washington’s decision to…
The deeply impoverished South American microstate of Guyana, which was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, finds itself at the epicenter of the continent's latest mega-oil…
A recurring theme when it comes to Venezuela’s oil industry and national oil company PDVSA are wildly ambitious crude oil production targets announced each year…
President Joe Biden’s decision to ban Russian energy imports to the U.S. is boosting the outlook for South America’s newest oil-producing nation Guyana as well as…
Venezuela and the pariah dictatorial regime of Nicolas Maduro are once again back in the international spotlight. President Joe Biden’s decision to ban Russian energy…
Despite spiraling oil prices which see the international Brent benchmark up by a stunning 53% since the start of 2022 to be trading at over…
Russia’s invasion of the former Soviet Republic Ukraine, Europe’s second-largest country, triggered a watershed moment for President Joe Biden and his administration. It is forcing…
The war in Ukraine, the subsequent U.S., and UK ban on Russian oil imports, Europe’s energy crisis, and supply constraints all highlight the need to…
President Vladmir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine coupled with ever-stricter sanctions being imposed on Russia, existing supply constraints and growing post-pandemic saw crude oil prices…
President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Europe’s second-largest country Ukraine highlights the threat posed by rising authoritarianism in a post-pandemic world afflicted by supply shocks for…
An often overlooked and ignored aspect of Venezuela’s crisis is the considerable environmental degradation occurring at the hands of the OPEC member’s decrepit oil industry.…
For decades after the rise of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel, the violence-riven Latin American country of Colombia was long associated with being a…
A surprise jump in Venezuela’s crude oil output at the end of 2021 caught industry analysts by surprise. According to data provided by Caracas to…
The last two years, since the COVID-19 pandemic commenced, have been particularly tumultuous for the strife-torn Latin American nation of Colombia. The fallout from the…
The former British colony of Guyana, one of South America’s poorest nations, is undergoing a major economic transformation driven by a massive oil boom. ExxonMobil’s…