Oil And Ethanol In Latin America And Asia-Pacific

Oil prices have escalated dramatically in recent years. As a result, observers have renewed interest in the possibility of producing ethanol. For some time, oil experts have been predicting the exhaustion of oil supplies. To date, reality has contradicted that position. However, there is consensus of the urgency to search for oil-substitutes including ethanol. Additionally, ethanol is an environmentally acceptable alternative. This study concludes that the growth of oil prices has the same critical importance for Latin America as for Asia-Pacific. The study examines the potential of substituting ethanol for petroleum in selected countries of Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The conclusion is that only Colombia, Peru, Malaysia, and Thailand have the potential because they cultivate sugarcane; Chile and South Korea do not have sugarcane production. The country with the greatest potential is Colombia, with a potential ethanol output greater than the equivalent fuel imports. The countries with medium potential are Thailand and Peru and the country with the smallest potential is Malaysia. Korea and Chile do not have the potential to replace oil imports, because they are located in a temperate region of the world; they must look for alternatives in other agricultural raw materials or in foreign trade.