More than 20 people were injured and some were arrested. There was a demonstration in Buenos Aires on Wednesday 28, and CTA Neuquen called for a 24 hours strike yesterday.
Indigenous communities, students, environmentalist movements, worker unions and CTA Neuquén met on Wednesday outside the local parliament to reject the law that was being discussed. They were harshly repressed by the local police, an action that ended with 28 people injured and some others detained- although they are all free now.
The law was supported by 25 legislators, while 2 rejected it. 7 representatives left the room without voting after asking for a session suspension because of the repression that was being held outside. In this context, there was a demonstration yesterday in the country’s capital city and the CTA Neuquen called for a 24 hours strike today to protest for the police’s action.
The debate
The sanctioned law extends until 2048 the period during which YPF is authorized to extract the non conventional hydrocarbons in the Loma La Lata Norte- Loma Campana area- Neuquen. On one hand, the peoples reject the project for environmental reason: the extraction is made by fraking, which has diverse consequences in both human health and the environment (water and soil pollution and increasing earthquake risk, among others).
On the other hand, this also allows the transnational company Chevron to arrive into the country, under conditions established in a secret agreement (there are already three legal requests to make it public). According to National Representative Claudio Lozano, former CTA member, this agreement with a company that has already been suited in Ecuador for environmental damage, could be explained by “the desperate government need facing the foreign currency deficit of more than U$60000 millon showed on the energetic balance” which leads to short-term solutions that will have a negative impact on the future.
What’s next
The agreement both companies signed stipulates an initial US$12040 million investment, of which US$750 million would be provided by Chevron. Besides, it foresees the sending of new perforation devices to complement the 14 that are already working in the area.
Another issue to take into account is the fact that this agreement would not be a solution to the energetic crisis. According to Lozano , while they foresee the extraction of more than 60000 crude barrels and 3 million m3 of gas, by the signing of the agreement the real production had decreased: we are getting 40% of petrol and 30% of gas less than in 2003.
In this line, the decree signed by the President ( 929/2013) not only concedes wide taxing benefits to the foreign company, but it also allows it to export fuel after 5 years, even if the amount produced is still not enough for the country to be self- sufficient (in that case, Argentina would by it to the company at the international price).
Finally, there is another situation that is still at stake: Repsol’s claims over the expropriation of YPF, as the latter is working on lands that are still subject of a legal dispute. As a matter of fact, Repsol is one of the three actors that presented a request to the Argentinian justice in order to make the YPF- Chevron agreement public. It will be necessary to wait to know how this situation develops.
