Tony Hayward, Consejero Delegado de British Petroleum, lo ha dicho muy bien: la escasez de petróleo no es tanto el resultado de limitaciones geológicas como de restricciones políticas. Como señala este artículo del Mises Institute a propósito de las declaraciones de Hayward:
"The problems are not so much below ground as above it," i.e., "not geological, but political." The problem is that governments forbid access to resources that they themselves fail to manage properly,[4] and they impose barriers on private companies' investments in surplus oil production capacity — i.e., to the satisfaction of consumers' energy needs.
Sadly, far less than 10% of the world's oil reserves are in countries that allow private companies to operate freely. This means that the latter and, through them, consumers, are denied access to far more than 90% of the world's oil reserves. State-owned companies control more than 65% of the world's oil reserves — e.g., in Saudi Arabia. As for the 25% left, they are mainly situated in countries such as Iran, Russia, Venezuela, etc., where, because of above-ground political factors, private Western companies have the greatest difficulties working efficiently — as demonstrated by BP's recent problems in Russia.
Podéis leer el artículo de Hayward en el Financial Times: "Let the markets solve the energy crisis".
