Topic: Impact and Safety of Deep Water Drilling
Country: Venezuela
Delegate Name: Andrea Clinton
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Venezuela position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
Venezuela recognizes the strong need for increased safety measures when exploiting oil in deep waters. The BP oil spill has intensified our concern for researching new ways to increase safety measures. Being a major oil producing nation and a member of OPEC, it is extremely important that we work to produce oil in the most efficient and safe way possible. The nation of Venezuela is in support of protecting the environment, which is evidenced by our compliance with the Kyoto Protocol since 2005 and our Ministry for the Popular Power of the Environment (MINAMB).
Less affluent nations who have recently discovered large amounts of oil have a great disadvantage when it comes to drilling for oil. Because developing nations do not have the money to purchase equipment for oil exploitation or the resources to teach their people how to work on machinery, they usually turn to foreign companies who come in and drill for the oil themselves. Because many developing countries (such as ones in West Africa) have very loose regulations on the oil production, oil companies from the US, China, and other large nations can drill for oil on land or off shore without ever having to comply with a tough set of safety regulations, as they would in their own country. This can easily lead to oil spills, drilling fluid discharges, and other manmade problems which could have easily been prevented by regulation and safety technologies. Our committee could work to suggest a set of regulations and safety equipments to improve conditions in countries like these.
Venezuela believes that ultimately, developing nations should become independent of foreign oil companies, just as we have done ourselves by nationalizing our oil industry. This will allow the nations to become more developed and set a higher standard of living for its citizens. By this point in time, we will hopefully have set higher standards for safety regulations, and will have developed a good system of ensuring these regulations are followed, therefore making sure that these nations will be able to fully comply with safety standards. However, factors such as patent ownership, the inequities in the exchange of technologies, and imbalances in political economies with developments in poorer countries are inhibiting their abilities to become independent. Venezuela hopes to see this aspect of the topic discussed.
