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The Latin oil rush

As the world is increasingly committed to renewable energy, across Latin America the discovery of untapped oil deposits has seen governments change strategy to embrace petrodollars – despite the continent's extreme vulnerability to the climate crisis. This series examines the impact on countries, communities and the environment

  • A collage of men in hard hats and oil rigs against a backdrop of a map of Mexico

    Mexico’s love affair with Pemex: will its bid to save the fallen oil giant block the shift to clean energy?

    Once providing half of Mexico’s revenue, the debt-laden state oil firm has been in decline for years. But government efforts to revive it in pursuit of energy self-sufficiency is stalling the drive for renewables
  • Illustration with composite of images of oil workers and sites in Argentina

    Argentina’s future lies in the balance as vast oilfields poised for extraction

    If passed, a new bill would send the country headfirst into the Latin American oil rush and halt any meaningful energy transition
  • Illustration with composite images from Ecuador including an Indigenous man, trains, forest and an oil can

    ‘This is something that divides us’: Ecuador’s turbulent transition from oil dependence

    With economic crises bearing down on the government, honouring the result of a referendum that demanded an end to drilling in a national park is proving difficult
  • Illustration of composite images from Brazil

    Pristine forests and grinding poverty: why shouldn’t Brazil’s Amapá state embrace oil wealth?

    The state’s dilemma sums up a core problem faced by the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: how to reconcile environmental commitments with the need for development
  • A photographic collage showing the colours of Guyana's flag, a map of Guyana, oil pipelines, deforestation and some of the people featured in the article

    Guyana banks on future as a ‘new Qatar’ in high-stakes gamble over oil production

  • The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wearing orange overalls and a white hard hat, holds up his oil-covered hands to the camera.

    ‘Will you stop exploring yours?’: Latin America forges ahead on new oil frontier

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