Environmental challenges for new roads

Developing petroleum wells throughout South America in a combined fashion, would require enormous investment in electrical facilities, upgrading of refineries, and even building new refineries. All of them should be connected by new roads and new pipelines. There will be environmental concerns and cultural concerns, which would require additional investment in environmental mitigation and cultural awareness projects. Indigenous communities and local organized groups are scattered throughout the regions, where the new roads and refurbished oil fields are located.

An educational component would require that workers are trained on enhanced oil recovery methods, sustainable mining and environmental preservation techniques for maintenance of legacy infrastructure, which possibly cost well-known tragedies in the Peruvian Amazon. We now have the example of Chevron and Exxon Mobil, working together in the exploration of Stabroek offshore field in Guyana. This model should be extrapolated for the rest of South America, as all countries will converge in their oil industry expectations.

Budgets will be prepared simultaneously for the whole region and blocks will be assigned according to South America's needs rather than national needs. We also must consider how increased South American oil production will affect OPEC+ quotas, being Venezuela the only Latin American member in OPEC+, while Venezuela will progressively align its oil strategies along with other South American countries. This will probably promote a bearish trend in oil prices, as untapped reserves that were off the radar of major oil companies will suddenly all be available all at once.

Copper mining in Chile is also a topic that should be addressed on a continental scale, as there are many legacy mining oficinas in dire environmental chaos. They must be cleaned up. A similar tragedy is occurring at Arco Minero del Orinoco in southern Venezuela. Projects for new developments in those areas will require significant percentages for cleaning up damage occurred during past production. Electrical generation remains central. An interconnection of thermal, hydroelectrical and geothermal sources of electrical energy must be designed throughout South America.

Interconnection between countries, using the new roads that are being proposed, for example from Puerto La Cruz to western areas of Arco Minero, require infrastructure such as a new Orinoco bridge near Mapire, on the oil belt Junín blocks. Our liberators Simón Bolívar, Miguel de San Martin, and many others sought this kind of cooperation between Latin American nations. Unfortunately South Americans decided to turn inward. If we don't unite, we will not be able to compete successfully against the European Union. the United States, Russia, or China.

Our countries are small. Even Brazil would benefit from an electrical connection with Venezuela and Paraguay, while the northeastern states of Pará, Maranhao and Rio Grande do Norte would benefit with enhanced trade routes with French Guyana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia. The border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru remains open for huge investment in ecotourism and petroleum development. Technologies exist so that mining and petroleum exploration is much more environmentally friendly than it used to be.

Environmentalists from developed countries often enjoy services and gross domestic product per capita needed for a comfortable life. They complain because in Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana or Bolivia, we would like to have economic development. It is a matter of revising a grid map for the whole continent, allocating the places where natural resources can be exploited: with an ample environmental and cultural allocation. We would ensure to preserve other areas. Many regions are used for illegal mining, the economic benefit of such unorganized activity is not felt by society as a whole.

If we open up new roads and if we open up formal avenues for investment in those remote regions, relocation will be possible for an educated local workforce. Such trained citizenry would take care of their environment, complying with applicable environmental and international law. It will be beneficial to promote regulated mining through an organized development plan, rather than continue forever letting garimpeiros exploit the wilderness as they wish.

A comprehensive project uniting South America, Central America, and the Caribbean through roads, ferries, pipelines, interconnected refineries and electrical generation facilities would cost about $1 trillion. And we must remember that the United States of America has printed a debt of about $40 trillion. Therefore, setting our minds to a $1 trillion project, which exclusively consists of provable beneficial economic development activities for millions of residents, creating millions of jobs in 37 countries, is more desirable than only printing paper debt in the United States to the amount of $40 trillion which probably will never be repaid.

A trillion dollar investment needed in Latin America for developing mining, petroleum and electricity would enhance oil recovery and sustainable mining. Education should promote revenue, in excess of that amount, during a reasonable amount of years. Latin American countries need to start debating among ourselves how we can cooperate with each other to exploit together, in a reasonable and thoughtful fashion, our natural resources that are in high demand across the planet.