El petróleo en el Caribe de Costa Rica: historia, actividades exploratorias e intrigas políticas

Oil has been known since Ancient history, but with the Industrial Revolution, during the 19th century, its use was diversified around the world. The first mentions of oil in the Caribbean of Costa Rica are from the 1870s. Due to the increase in the international demand for the resource during a time of national and international political instability, at the beginning of the 20th century the first oil contracts were signed in Costa Rica. Both American and British companies were vying to keep Costa Rican hydrocarbon resources for themselves, but they lost their exploratory interest at the beginning of the 1920s, when the first petroleum wells were already finished and they were convinced of the lack of commercial-character deposits in Costa Rica. After three decades without further interest for the activity, there was a renewed attempt to achieve energy independence through oil in 1951. A new contract was signed with the Costa Rican Oil Company, subsidiary of the Union Oil Company of California, which started a campaign of superficial and deep exploration that would continue uninterrupted until 1963. In that period, the most productive wells were drilled (Cocoles 1 and 2), though no oil in commercial amounts was found. In 1967, the contract with ELF Company (Essences et Lubrifiants de France) continued a similar strategy of exploration, though in a larger area, and thus the first and only marine oil platform in Costa Rica was built, near the coast of Moín. Nevertheless, political instability in the Middle East during the 1970s led to a sudden increase in oil prices, which culminated in an economic crisis and the end of a stage of oil explorations. As a result of this crisis, in 1980 the United Nations recommended that developing countries seek self-sufficiency. This led RECOPE (Costa Rican Oil Refinery) to sign agreements with two companies, Pemex (Mexican Petroleum) and Petro-Canada, with which the last exploratory deep wells were drilled in the country. In the 1990s, once the Cold War had finished, environmental issues were a priority in international discussions. At the same time, Costa Rica signed agreements with the World Bank, seeking economic reform, which led to the approval of the Hydrocarbons Law in a time when the country was already trying to detach from the dependence of oil as the main source of energy. Both situations led to a conflict between Harken Company and the State of Costa Rica during the 2000s, in which the latter was the winner. The moratorium on any oil-exploratory activity, imposed by the government since 2011, confirms the interest of Costa Rica in becoming a carbon neutral country and avoids the inherent risks of oil exploration and extraction. However, each year national and world consumption of oil keeps growing and Costa Rica depends completely on the international market.

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