The Quest, Chapter 5 Overview

The Quest, Chapter 5 Overview

We include a short reading in The Quest to provide more insight into the impacts to a country that is an exporter of energy vs one that imports. And you can then imagine how disruptive it is for a country to switch back and forth. In recent years, the USA went from importer, to exporter, to importer again. That can’t be good for economic stability, let alone risks in regard to energy security. And we sometimes hear the terms net exporter or net importer, which means a country can be an importer and exporter at the same time. The “net” then is based on which dominates at any given time. A country can be one for gas and the other for oil. Finally, if you are a net exporting country, it makes a profound difference to the stability of your economy if it depends primarily on that export or if the oil and gas is one of many exports. Countries like the USA are less impacted than a country like Venezuela because we have many exports compared to Venezuela. But do not be fooled, having many types of exports does not make us immune to risks associated with being a net energy importer.