Committee: Economic & Financial
Topic: Economic Impact of Oil Dependence
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rutgers Model United Nations
Committee Type: General Assembly
Delegate: Kyle Valente (Elizabeth High School)
Position Paper:
Oil is currently being extracted at an alarming rate of 1000 barrels per second.
The United States alone has reached the pivotal amount of USD $147.27 per barrel, the
highest recorded rate. With oil being a necessity for business, transportation, industry,
and essentially all fundamental parts of life, the dependence of oil must be considered
whole-heartedly. The simple fact is that the impact of oil dependence, economically, is
devastating in terms of expectancy as well as stability. The EIA predicts that by 2030 the
world will be consuming 113 million barrels of oil per day. This astounding number
supports the idea that our dependency will only grow on a resource that is becoming ever
so valuable. The 2003 statistics show 79 million barrels a day being consumed. With
nearly doubling our consumption rates in a mere 27 years, no one can say perhaps who
will have control of all that oil in the upcoming years.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, certainly, cannot deny its dependency on oil, nor the
impact it poses and currently has economically. With businesses going downhill, and the
majority of its 4.6 million population struggling to avoid a depression, remaining
economically sound is difficult enough without taking into account oil dependency.
However, she believes that oil dependency must be considered on three points: net
consumers, net producers, and the environment. Countries need to be motivated to find
alternative commodities they can market, which would lessen oil’s role in their
economies, and in so doing strengthen them. The reserves of gas and oil nationally
speaking is poor around the world, and this must certainly change. The UN must push for
economically sound ideas to be adopted, and for nationalized reserves to be taken into
serious account for. The dependence on the Middle East, Russia, and other major oil
producers must be alleviated to a certain degree. Now, not to say that strong trade must
not occur, because if it did not in these regions, the economy would be in ruins- But, the
dependency level cannot, and must not remain at the level it is. Environmentally
speaking, alternative fuels, as well as other major commodities should be considered
more frequently in nations that are purchasing massive amounts of oil. In such places as
the United States, China, and Germany, a lesser dependency on oil would, in turn, have a
positive net-effect on the rest of the world. More natural forms of powering vehicles,
industries, and other utilities need to be invested upon. The incentive here is not to avoid
paying large prices, but to create an economically sound environment for the
international community. Oil dependency has the ability to shatter the economy of
nations at any given point in time, or simply cut off its line of supply. Such possibilities
should not exist in our contemporary society.