With oil prices dropping along with the industry’s slow or even negative growth, Latin America’s 2015 tax revenues from oil exploration production and processing are expected to fall overall, declining by 1.0%–1.5% of GDP for Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico. Revenues from Colombia and Peru’s oil industries are also forecast to decline. The region has not been increasing its refining capacity but is instead exploring and turning to new technologies to increase production of existing fields. Crude oil reserves of 329.4 billion barrels are predicted for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2015, a drop of 0.3%. The region is also actively exploring natural gas, although its 2015 reserves are expected to decrease 1.2% to 274.3 billion ft3. As for R&D, investment in Latin America and Caribbean has been relatively low, aside from Brazil’s 1.2% of GDP, and ranges from 0.6% to 0.03%–0.04% of GDP, but opportunities are increasing. Several countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica and Uruguay, have recently established government entities for science, technology and innovation. Mexico has opened a lab to study the human genome, and Peru has raised its science and technology budget from $5 million to $42 million.

Source: Deloitte