04/26/2021 11:18 PM
Clarín.com
Opinion
Updated 04/26/2021 11:18 PM
The main reason for Argentina's decline is to be found in
the lack of State policies.
Not even the strategy to one day regain the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands makes the political forces sit down to negotiate something similar to a consensus.
Much less the economy
and, as can be seen these days,
neither are the health operations
against Covid. Those who come to power throw everything that the previous government did out of the window. It doesn't matter if it's good, bad, or fair. Argentina has
spent decades of refoundations
that always achieve the same objective: to make things worse.
There is, however, an initiative that barely
tries to avoid that destiny of
permanent
defeat
. It is the project to exploit the Vaca Muerta shale gas and shale oil deposits.
There are 30,000 kilometers of geological formations
concentrated in the province of Neuquén, but which also extend to Río Negro, Mendoza and La Pampa. They were discovered by the American geologist Charles Weaver in 1931, exploring Patagonia for Standard Oil of California. But it was not until 2012 that Argentina
began an exploitation project
to take advantage of that wealth housed under the national soil. Cristina Kirchner ruled and, with an agreement between YPF and Chevron, what the rest of the planet began to visualize as
a stroke of luck
for the country of lost opportunities.
At that time it was questioned that the agreement between the two oil companies was secret and later it was learned that what was sought to hide is
that Chevrón could turn its profits abroad,
a clause that Kirchnerism endorses when it is a government and condemns when it is in the opposition.
Beyond this
political overactivity
, the initial impulse led to the addition of investments a year later by the French Total, the British-Dutch Shell, the Canadian Americas Petrogas and Madalena Energy, and other important oil companies such as Panamerican Energy, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Pluspetrol and Tecpetrol, the last two companies of the Techint corporation.
The miracle accomplished in Vaca Muerta is that, after the defeat of Kirchnerism, Mauricio Macri
did not send the project to the trash can.
In 2018, it released the price of a barrel of oil in the country, which
multiplied investments
in the area and increased production. But the defeat of the former president in the PASO of 2019 blew up the economy, crude prices were frozen again, and the fantasy of shale as Argentina's salvation was suddenly transformed into
another fleeting illusion.
At the end of 2019, Alberto Fernández took office
with the promise of a new hydrocarbons law
that would reactivate the sector. Of course, the outbreak of the Covid pandemic paralyzed the world when the fall in gas and oil consumption in 2020 collapsed the price of a barrel of crude that Argentina needed so that Vaca Muerta could grow. The current government
took a year
to implement the Gas IV Plan (the first and second were launched by Cristina, and the third by Macri), with which it tries to stop another announced debacle.
But as if the coronavirus and the brake on the global economy were little difficulty, Argentina added
its usual dose of self-flagellation.
Three weeks ago, a strike by health workers has paralyzed almost the entire province of Neuquén.
There are more than twenty pickets
on different routes that lead to strategic cities such as Cutral Có and Añelo, the town from which Vaca Muerta's energy commitment is fed.
The "self-summoned" are health personnel, just
the union most cornered by the Covid.
In their ranks, activists from the left and from Neuquén Kirchnerism coincide with non-aligned workers and others without experience in the protest.
They do not respond to the leadership of the state union
(ATE Neuquén) and have become a headache for the governor, Omar Gutiérrez.
Their latest salary offer, a 53% raise for this year combined with staggered unpaid amounts, failed to
convince them.
On either side were negotiators trying to end a strike that threatened to destroy Vaca Muerta.
Picún Leufú, Neuquén.
Photo Alfredo Leiva
The problem is that the pickets on the Neuquén routes keep
some of the Vaca Muerta plants closed.
Most have already run out of sand for the fracturing process that comes from Chubut or Entre Ríos and there are oil workers, who work full time for a week and then rest for another week, who
cannot leave the companies.
The Petroleum unionist, Guillermo Pereyra, has filed a judicial injunction to let them go through the cuts and
threatens to send thousands of his own
to dislodge the pickets. That collision would add drama to a conflict that no one can resolve.
The country that fell more than 10% last year and that already has 42% of its population below the poverty line
cannot afford to risk a unique opportunity
like that of Vaca Muerta. Every day, for three weeks,
25 million cubic meters of gas have been lost that are irrecoverable
and the projection shows that it will
have to import two hundred million dollars
of liquefied natural gas through that temptation for corruption that are the regasification ships.
Instead of taking advantage of the geological blessing of having Vaca Muerta and being able to achieve
the energy self-sufficiency
that General Enrique Mosconi dreamed of, Argentina is going through another of its nightmares hand in hand with its conflict.
Under the Patagonian soil, we have reserves of shale gas to become
the second largest producer on the planet
and of shale oil to be in fourth place.
Not even the health tragedy of this time has allowed us to concentrate on the healthy exercise of being a more prosperous country.
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Conflict in the South: health workers anticipate they will reject the Neuquén government's offer
