Oil frictions and the subterranean geopolitics of energy regionalisms

This paper contributes to analyses of energy integration strategies in Latin America. Focusing on the case of Ecuador’s participation in regional energy networks, the paper traces how oilfields, region, firms, and state are entangled in the making of energo-political assemblages. The paper develops an analytic of subterranean frictions in order to trace the coproduction of subterranean space and oil geopolitical events and, more generally, propose a more expansive geography of subterranean geopolitics that challenges spatial simplifications of resource extraction. The paper discusses how subterranean geopolitics, alongside surface politics, contributes to our understanding of the promises (and failures) of emerging energy projects in Latin America.