Matthew Smith

Latest articles from Matthew

• Suriname's Oil Boom May Not Materialize Until 2027

  Published 24 February 2023 | viewed 7,581 times

  By late 2022 there were considerable concerns and doubts surrounding Suriname’s burgeoning offshore oil boom. Conflicting drilling results and seismic data saw 50% partners in Block 58…

• Colombia’s Risky Plan To Import Gas From Venezuela

  Published 23 February 2023 | viewed 4,415 times

  Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s controversial plan to end hydrocarbon exploration sparked fears it will roil the oil dependent economy and endanger the strife-torn country’s energy security.…

• Guyana’s Oil Potential Could Be Even Greater Than Anticipated

  Published 14 February 2023 | viewed 14,505 times

  Offshore Guyana is garnering considerable attention from international oil companies as a slew of oil discoveries since 2015 underscore the significant oil potential of the…

• Colombia’s OIl Exploration Ban Could Crush Its Economy

  Published 07 February 2023 | viewed 8,678 times

  The future of Colombia’s battered oil industry is once again in doubt. The plans of the strife-torn country’s first leftwing President Gustavo Petro, who was…

• Guyana’s Oil Industry Is In For A Stellar Year

  Published 24 January 2023 | viewed 9,825 times

  ExxonMobil made its first world-class oil discovery in Guyana’s territorial waters in 2015. Since then, the energy supermajor has made over 30 high-quality oil discoveries…

• Suriname’s Oil Boom Hits A $10 Billion Snag

  Published 20 January 2023 | viewed 42,771 times

  A series of high-quality oil discoveries in Block 58 offshore Suriname combined with investment bank Morgan Stanley estimating that the block contains 6.5 billion barrels…

• Venezuela’s Vast Oil Wealth Could Become The World’s Largest Stranded Asset

  Published 17 January 2023 | viewed 13,472 times

  President Joe Biden’s decision to authorize U.S. supermajor Chevron to recommence lifting crude oil in Venezuela breathed hope into President Nicolas Maduro’s plans to rebuild…

• Venezuela’s Dilapidated Oil Industry Is An Environmental Catastrophe

  Published 11 January 2023 | viewed 8,353 times

  The collapse of Venezuela’s once prolific oil industry has triggered an economic and humanitarian crisis that accelerated in 2019 after U.S. President Donald Trump implemented…

• Chevron’s Authorization To Extract Oil Will Not Boost Venezuela’s Production

  Published 07 January 2023 | viewed 9,355 times

  After Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. along with many of Washington’s allies banned imports of Russian crude oil. This…

• Colombia’s Oil Industry Is An Environmental Disaster

  Published 05 January 2023 | viewed 4,744 times

    For decades, the petroleum industry in South America has been dogged by one environmental catastrophe after another. Oil spills, flaring and other environmentally damaging…

• The Dirty War For Colombia’s Oil

  Published 03 January 2023 | viewed 3,531 times

        The Latin American country of Colombia is synonymous with violence, drug cartels and cocaine trafficking after decades of bloody multiparty low level…

• Guyana’s Oil Boom Will Only Accelerate In 2023

  Published 31 December 2022 | viewed 17,316 times

  Guyana’s offshore oil boom continues to gain momentum. It is the ExxonMobil-led consortium operating the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block offshore Guyana which stands to benefit the…

• Peru’s Oil Industry Is An Environmental Disaster

  Published 30 December 2022 | viewed 5,676 times

  As an intense political crisis engulfs Peru, the country’s beleaguered oil industry continues to suffer from conflict with local communities. For nearly three decades a…

• Suriname’s Oil Boom Is Far From Guaranteed

  Published 29 December 2022 | viewed 9,925 times

  After a swathe of oil discoveries in offshore Suriname, primarily in Block 58, since the start of January 2020 there was considerable speculation that the…

• Peru’s Political Crisis Is Weighing On Its Energy Industry

  Published 25 December 2022 | viewed 2,610 times

  Peru’s long-running political crisis has erupted into violence. Scandal embroiled leftist president Pedro Castillo, who sought to upend the conservative establishment and decades of neoliberal…

• Oil Investors Are Skeptical Of Brazil’s New President

  Published 23 December 2022 | viewed 4,055 times

  Former president and leftist candidate Luis Inacio Lula da Silva emerged victorious from Brazil’s hotly contested October 2022 presidential election. Populist hard-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s…

• Guyana Is Becoming A Top-Tier Oil Producer

  Published 14 December 2022 | viewed 19,021 times

  Despite the dire predictions of peak oil demand, which will is expected to arrive during the next decade as the world transitions to a low-carbon…

• Cocaine Conflict Is Causing A Crisis For Colombia’s Oil Industry

  Published 01 December 2022 | viewed 3,953 times

  The ferocity of Colombia’s low-intensity multiparty asymmetric conflict is rising once again. This frightening turn of events started in late 2018 when Ivan Duque became…

• Tax Hikes Threaten To Cripple Colombia’s Oil Industry

  Published 23 November 2022 | viewed 5,419 times

  There is considerable speculation that the end is drawing close for Colombia’s economically vital hydrocarbon sector. The Andean country’s petroleum industry is facing significant headwinds,…

• Can Colombia Secure Peace With The Last Leftwing Guerrilla Group?

  Published 22 November 2022 | viewed 1,584 times

  Colombia is locked in a never-ending cycle of grinding poverty, conflict and violence that has existed for nearly a century. The Latin American country’s decades-long…