拉美石油资源储量丰富，对全球石油产量增加贡献较大。拉美资源国普遍把实现石油稳产、增产作为石油产业发展的优先目标，为此加大在勘探、开发领域投资，并积极吸引外资参与本国石油上游产业。为满足国内石油消费需求和提高石油产品出口附加值，拉美产油大国也不断加大对炼化能力建设的投入。拉美的国家石油公司持有油气优质资产，且在对外合作中占据主导地位，但普遍债务负担沉重，对外部融资需求较大。尽管资源国的石油政策保持稳定，但因经济增长放缓，国内政治、社会矛盾增多，拉美的油气投资环境复杂多变，风险因素增多。
Latin America has rich oil reserves，which have greater contributions to the global oil production. The priority in the agenda of resource countries is to stabilize and increase the crude oil production，and to make more investment in exploration，development and refinery sectors. The national companies in the region play dominant roles in external cooperation，but they also need to cooperate with international oil companies for attracting foreign investments and technology services. The majority of international oil companies are optimistic to cooperate with the resource rich countries. The oil policy frameworks in Latin American resource countries maintain stable，but the investment environment in the region is still complicated with some volatile factors in view of political and social risks caused by the slowdown economic growth.
