The Financial Times reports that a DC-based consulting firm called PFC energy has released a report warning of a reduced oil supply in years to come. The twist is that PFC isn’t concerned (for now anyway) with a lack of petroleum reserves, but with decisions by governments to nationalize and limit investment in the energy sector:
Read the whole thing. It’s both interesting and worrying. State-owned energy companies underspend on exploration and new production; they siphon profits into state coffers, or are used as employment programs. (I’ve written about Pemex before–here, for example. ) Now we see that the proliferation of state ownership threatens not just a nation’s economic vitality and energy future, but potentially the world’s as well. If looking at the list of the world’s major oil exporters didn’t convince you of the need to treat energy as a national security issue (the top dozen exporters include Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, Libya, and Iraq), then stories like this one will. It’s probably impossible for this country to eliminate it reliance on imported oil for the foreseeable future, but it’s critical that we look seriously at a broad range of policy options to reduce our dependence.
