Latin America and the Caribbean move toward energy security

Caracas, 13 May. AVN .- One of the main issues analyzed during a meeting by the people responsible for the energy area in Latin America and the Caribbean was the construction of an institutionality to be able to execute the proposals made on energy security, informed the Venezuelan Energy and Oil minister Rafael Ramirez.

The encounter held in a hotel in Caracas is part of the preliminary meetings in the framework of the Third Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development (CALC) that will take place in Venezuela on July 5.

“Energy security includes a reliable and direct supply; for such reason, there are proposals to create mixed ventures in which each country can manage sovereignly its own resources without intermediaries that create so much speculation in the international oil market. We have progressed a lot in that matter in the Caribbean and in the South,” Ramirez explained.

In the first journey, it was decided the themes that will be discussed during the ministerial meeting of this Friday in which it is expected the attendance of the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs minister Nicolas Maduro.

From Friday"s meeting, a series of proposals will emerge and they will be debated over by the head of States next July during the Third CALC Summit.

“Solidarity, complementarity,energy security and asymmetries were the main themes discussed on Thursday,” he added

Ramirez stated that ministers have also debated over energy cooperation, since the countries in the meeting are part of Petrocaribe and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and proposals have been made to make the two blocs work in the same direction.

The Venezuelan minister recalled that besides Petrocaribe, Venezuela has alliances in 8 mixed ventures in the Caribbean and is participating in the South in diverse natural gas, oil and fuel projects with Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia.

“We have reached some progress in a bilateral way, but we think that this is an extraordinary proposal because we are holding talks with countries with common problems and we are building a fundamental bloc so as to give support to the socio-economic development of our nations,” he added.

Ramirez recalled that Latin America and the Caribbean have become one of the regions in the world with more hydrocarbon reserves, “which will be very important for the planning in next years.”

09:38 13/05/2011

avn

Bahamas Blog International