Economic Growth and Oil Routes in the Mediterranean Countries

Diversity and inequality are the main features of the Mediterranean area, which comprises twenty-five countries that vary from one another in economic terms, development levels and energy consumption. The Mediterranean area plays a strategic role in the energy markets for several reasons. First, for the presence of important producing and exporting countries of oil and natural gas, as Algeria and Libya; second, for its proximity to the exporting countries of the Persian Gulf, and the presence of a large network of pipelines that transport oil and natural gas from producing areas of the Middle East and former Soviet Union to consumer countries in the European Union. In the present paper I will discuss the evolution of energy consumption and production in the Mediterranean countries during the last fifty years, comparing it with that of the major economies of the world. I will then focus on the main oil-producing countries of the Mediterranean area and their exports flows. Finally, I will analyze in detail the dynamics that have characterized oil production and consumption, and the important changes in the composition of the energy balance of the Mediterranean and the world.