Mexico's Energy Resources
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About the Book and Editors
Beginning from the premise that Mexico's economic strength will depend largely on its ability to produce, manage, and export energy, energy experts in this book analyze energy planning in Mexico in the 1970s and possible strategies for the future. They focus on the potential for diversifying the country's energy economy--now based almost exclusively on oil--by examining alternative sources, particularly natural gas, coal, and geothermal and solar resources. The extent to which Mexico's energy base is diversified, they assert, will determine the country's ability both to meet internal energy needs and to prolong its export of oil and gas. find, diversification will not only increase Mexico's economic strength, but will also expand the global supply of energy resources and have profound impact on the United States, Mexico's major trading partner.
Dr. Miguel S. Wionczek is a senior fellow and the head of the long-term energy research program at El Colegio de Mxico. He is coeditor, with Gerald Foley and Ariane van Buren, of Energy in the Transition from Rural Subsistence (Westview, 1982). Dr. Ragaei El Mallakh is professor of economics and director of the International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development at the University of Colorado. He is the editor of the Journal of Energy and Development and OPEC: Twenty Years and Beyond (Westview, 1981).
Mexicos Energy Resources
Toward a Policy of Diversification
edited by Miguel S. Wionczek and Ragaei El Mallakh
First published 1985 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mexicos energy resources.
(A Westview replica edition)
1. Power resources--Mexico. 2. Energy policy--Mexico.
I. Wionczek, Miguel S. II. El Mallakh, Ragaei,
1925 .
TJ163.25.M6M47 1985 333.790972 84-7399
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01998-3 (hbk)
- 3.3 Manpower Employed in Work on New Energy Sources by Main Categories , 1981 (percentage of
total employed manpower) - .
Mexico's Energy Resources
1
Current and Future Energy Options for Mexico
Ragaei El Mallakh
The idea for this volume first sprang from the August 1981 international conference on "Mexico: Energy Policy and Industrial Development," sponsored by the International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development (ICEED) and held at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At the conference the energy problems and industrialization issues of the country were presented by a number of participants. Afterward, several of the papers delivered at that conference were updated and expanded and now form the core of the book. Most papers, however, were prepared specifically for inclusion in this joint publication effort of El Colegio de Mexico and the ICEED.
In the few years that have passed since the conference, the pendulum has swung from boundless optimism concerning the future of Mexico based upon the accessibility of high levels of oil-generated revenues to fears of Mexican renunciation of or default on international debts. Since then, Mexico has inaugurated a new president, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who took office in December 1982 and introduced an austerity program. Like the rest of the world, Mexico has suffered from spiraling inflation and the consequences of global recession.
When development and exploitation of Mexico's oil resources expanded rapidly in the 1970s, Mexico was frequently called the new Saudi Arabia. In actuality, only in the area of petroleum reserves could the two countries be compared. The most obvious difference is in the levels of domestic petroleum requirements and revenue needed to meet the demands of economic development. For starters, the population of Mexico City alone is more than ten times that of Saudi Arabia. This demographic indicator, coupled with a high birth rate and a rising standard of living, means that Mexican energy policy has to be geared primarily toward meeting ever-expanding domestic consumption. While meeting internal energy demand as efficiently as possible, Mexico must avoid the pitfall of overreliance on finite oil and gas reserves both for energy consumption and as a generator of revenues. If one were to compare Mexico with a Middle Eastern oil-producing country, Egypt might offer a better analogy, although Mexican petroleum reserves and other energy resources are greater than those of Egypt.
