Latin America plays catch-up
The pandemic wreaked havoc on NOC balance sheets in 2020, but the region still has some competitive advantages
Latin America has some of the best subsurface upstream opportunities globally, but NOCs must foster greater resilience to fully capitalise on the region’s resource potential, according to panellists at CeraWeek by IHS Markit. “Resilience is determined by being vertically integrated,” says Juan Manuel Rojas, corporate vice president, strategy and business development, at Colombian NOC Ecopetrol. “Our midstream does a great job in countering a drop in revenues from the upstream, and similarly the downstream is resilient when refineries are affected.” “We are going to deliver a very competitive barrel of oil, a barrel that costs the lowest in the supply curve” Santos, Petrobras For Bra
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
