MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei tours Vaca Muerta and Chile with a focus on energy investments

We have the second-largest shale oil reserves in the world and we can be an exporting power, Milei argued

Argentine President Javier Milei resumed his mileage accruing habit Thursday with a trip to Vaca Muerta in the Patagonian province of Neuquén and later to Santiago, where he met with local businessmen but not with Gabriel Boric Font.

Milei's stop at Vaca Muerta, the shale oil and gas reservoir expected to yield yearly exports worth up to US$ 30 billion came a week after the State-run YPF announced a joint venture with its Malaysian counterpart Petronas to install a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in the province of Río Negro. The facility will be using Vaca Muerta gas, it was explained. The Argentine President described the initiative as “the largest investment in history” which “will place us at the forefront of the export market.” The choice of Rio Negro was seen as a political move to the detriment of Buenos Aires' Peronist Governor Axel Kicillof who had hoped it would be settled in Bahía Blanca.

Milei's entourage was made up of Spokesman Manuel Adorni; Presidential Secretary Karina Milei; Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos; YPF President Horacio Marín, and Natural Resources Secretary Daniel González Casartelli.

Milei and Neuquén Governor Rolando Figueroa overflew the oilfields in Añelo by helicopter as part of the head of state's agenda. Then Milei flew over the Tratayén compressor plant, at the head of the President Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline (GPNK), which, although inaugurated a month ago, is only now beginning to compress natural gas to inject it into the network. He then climbed the control tower of the Nabors NB 1211 drilling rig, which was excavating in the Soil 455 horizontal well, with a depth of 3,083 meters.

Joining Milei were the leading oil executives in the country, such as Marcos and Alejandro Bulgheroni (Pan American Energy), Marcelo Mindlin (Pampa Energía); Hugo Eurnekian (Compañía General de Combustibles), Catherine Remy (Total Energies), Juan Garoby (Vista), Ricardo Markous (Tecpetrol), Germán Burmeister (Shell); Adrián Vila (Pluspetrol), Diego Trabucco (Aconcagua Energía), and Daniel De Nigris (ExxonMobil).

Around 2 pm, Milei left for Chile to deliver a speech at a conference hosted by Gas Andes. However, he was unable to meet with Boric due to schedule arrangements. It is now expected that both leaders will get together on Aug. 29 at the Argentine Embassy in Santiago during the VII Chilean-Argentine Mining Meeting.

Despite their notorious differences, Milei and Boric took similar approaches to the Venezuelan crisis. Diplomatic teams from both countries were expelled from Caracas as a result.

During his speech in Santiago, Milei insisted that “there will never again be a lack of gas in Argentina.”

“Because of irresponsible policies of other Argentine governments, such as Kirchnerism, there was a low performance of the gas pipeline flow. Kirchnerism decided to stop exporting the promised gas and thus break the supply agreement between both countries,” he added.

“We are not going to make that decision. I am Javier Milei, not Néstor Kirchner and I have an unwavering vocation to embrace the ideas of the free market,” he also underlined.

“Our vocation is marked by the commitment to honor signed contracts, whether we like them or not. The order of the capitalist system depends on trust between the parties,” he went on.

“The irresponsibility of those who decided to breach the contracts cost us our reputation. Gas Andes is one example of many. It is not by chance that we are one of the countries that received the least direct investments,” the Libertarian leader also pointed out.

“We are doubling down our efforts to gain the confidence of the world again, which will bring us the longed-for prosperity. I have just visited Vaca Muerta and held conversations with the main CEOs of oil companies. It is an example of the development of private initiative in Argentina. It is a before and after for our country. There will never again be a gas shortage in the country. There will never again be an energy deficit in Argentina. At least as long as we keep the ideas of freedom,” he also highlighted.

“Chile has been a great example of what must be done to sustain economic development over time. Its economic policy has endured despite the changes of political sign,” Milei reckoned.

“We want to take advantage, once and for all, of the gifts that God gave us. We have the second-largest shale oil reserves in the world. Following the ideas of freedom we can be an exporting power. We can and we are going to do it. We have all the conditions to compete as equals in the world,” he claimed.