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Twenty-fifth Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference
The developing countries had no alternative but to increase energy consumption, because this was a major propellant to economic growth. Therefore, the developing countries should have an equal share of energy resources and other raw materials, wh ensuring among themselves a greater degree of co-operation in the supply and developm of energy resources.
A delegate from Canada said that in 1979 the OPEC price had increased by 9 percent plus surcharges of $4. Three months later it had increased by 24 percent and it was estimated that before the end of 1979 the spot price would be $40 a barrel.
Since 1960 the world's usage of crude oil had increased from 18,000,000 to about 66,000,000 barrels a day.
During 1977 and 1978, 24,000,000 barrels of oil a day had been produced by the OPEC countries, and the revenue from export sales alone had amounted to $100 billion.
Canada was about 80 percent self-sufficient in oil, and in the long term had the capacity to be self-sufficient in energy.
A delegate from Trinidad and Tobago said they could not foresee the price of oil being stabilised, and there was a need to explore the development of alternative energy. One way of assisting underdeveloped and developing countries was soft loans accompanied by technical assistance. Although it needed technical assistance itself, Trinidad and Tobago had been able to give soft loans with moratorium periods for repayment and technical assistance to the less developed countries of the Caribbean.
Since 1975, when Britain had wrested a relatively small amount of oil from the North Sea, it had increased the amount tenfold, and was self-sufficient in oil. The United Kingdom was not, and was not likely to be, a member of OPEC, but its prices were world market prices. OPEC must take account of the poorer nations that could not deal with the problems arising from the constant rise in prices, and he hoped the organisaton would do more to recycle the large amounts it had at its disposal.
The Western Samoan delegate said that his country was feeling the pinch of the oil energy crisis, and had adopted methods to combat it. It was grateful to the United Nations for its investigation programme into fossil and nuclear sources of energy in the Pacific. He suggested that a concerted request should be made to the IEA, the EEC, or the OECD for some concession.
The Leader of the Botswana delegation said that Botswana had natural resources, but neither technological nor financial resources. It had hoped that cheap loans would be available from the OPEC fund, but as they were not it would welcome aid from its Commonwealth friends.
The dependence of Barbados on imports, mainly of crude petroleum and petroleum products, had been a major constraint on development programming since the energy crisis of 1973-74, and the new round of oil price increases represented a major challenge to economic resurgence. The escalation in the price of petroleum fuels since 1973 pointed up the need for an alternative strategy, and various investigations were being made.
A Canadian delegate spoke of the success of the partnership between Government and private enterprise in developing natural resources in Alberta, and of the possibility of other countries making discoveries. Canada had the potential to become totally self-sufficient in energy resources-principally hydrocarbons-without jeopardising the economic or democratic system.
The problem of energy consumption was one of supply, rather than price, but trends suggested that modest gains might be made through continued exploration.
The delegate from Burmuda drew attention to the finite nature of world oil reserves, the increase in consumption, the decline in discoveries of oil, and the cost of production; and the exacerbation of those problems by insufficient conservation.
The principal sources of available energy were the sun and nuclear fission, and perhaps geothermal energy; but there was a need for greater capital investment if such sources were to be developed. In addition, there was a need for increased productivity.
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