Contrary to what was expected a few years ago, now “the oil & gayes It is going to be part of the solution for a much longer time.” This is what he assured Marcos Bulgheroni, CEO of Pan American Energy (PAE)at the Expo AOG 2023, which takes place in La Rural, and in which he participated Ambit.
One of the most important businessmen in the country gave his global view, spoke of a new stage for the industry, with higher prices and greater weight of geopolitics. At the local level, he assured that Argentina is “at a turning point,” and that the challenge will not only be to stabilize the macroeconomy, but to achieve regional integration with Mercosur.
Energy transition
Bulgheroni assured that the energy transition marks “a new stage in the evolution of the industry.” However, he also highlighted that “the orill & gas “It is going to be part of the solution for a long time, as transition fuel,” to provide cheap, safe and accessible energy.
As an example of the current stage of the energy transition, he recalled what was happening at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP): “Five years ago, the oil and gas They were not invited. Everyone was terrified of taking a photo with an oil company. Now the COP this year will be in Dubai, hosted by the Arab Emirates. “That shows the change.”
In this sense, he called on the industry to be a protagonist and establish new consensus, such as showing itself in favor of Paris Agreement, and set objectives to lower its carbon intensity and have lower emissions. But not only in the hydrocarbon sector, but also in aluminum, steel, cement and industries. “Together we have a common problem that will have to be attacked with more technology, so that there is a real solution for our sector, and get out of the false dichotomy of saying ‘either you produce for economic growth or you have no emissions but you don’t produce either’”, he claimed.
Challenges in Argentina
On the potential of the country and Vaca Muerta, Bulgheroni referred to the need for have “an orderly macro” and million-dollar investments in infrastructure, although he also celebrated that Vaca Muerta has been “a State policy of all governments”. But he focused on the need to go towards a Regional integration: “Since the 90s there has been talk of integrating Mercosur. Vaca Muerta, with the size of the production horizon, leads you to this being a reality.”
In that sense, he referred to the existing infrastructure connections that should be developed to reach from Vaca Muerta to Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay. Regarding the reversal of the northern gas pipeline, which has just been put out to tender, he said: “It will allow connecting Dead cow with Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. My opinion is that a closed ring has to be established, for geopolitics and security.” In addition, he said there are other opportunities: “There are a lot of products that, as long as refiners have the right price incentives, they could be exporting. “Both LPG, gasoline and diesel, as well as coke and chemicals.”
Bulgheroni said that From last year to this year, PAE doubled its production in Vaca Muerta. And he concluded: “If we had an orderly macro, we could finance ourselves, access the international capital market, to be able to invest and thus have greater production and exports. “We are at the turning point where the country is going to become an exporting country, but for that we need more exploration equipment.”
Global look
After the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Bulgheroni defined 2023 as the “equilibrium of a new era”, which will be marked by “relatively high” prices, a product of greater Chinese demand and OPEC supply restrictions. In addition, he spoke of an increasingly relevant crude oil market, lower global supply from Russia and with the United States as the “big winner” due to the increase in its export volumes: “It is a new stage where geopolitics will weigh more than before”he claimed.
Dead Cow X3
In the “Meeting with the CEOs” activity, which takes place at the AOG Expo 2023, Five businessmen agreed that it is possible to triple Vaca Muerta, and reach 900 wells a year. But they asked to add industrialization, as in the petrochemical industry, but also technology, digitalization and efficiency. That was the reflection reached by Andres Cavallari, CEO of Raizen Argentina, Andrés Scarone, general manager of MEGA, Ricardo Hosel, CEO of Oldeval, Jorge Vidal, managing director ABC, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Gustavo Astie, CEO of Pecom.
“It is the most favorable industry context I have seen in 28 years. But we cannot escape the local context,” said Astie. Currently, the biggest difficulties faced by the industry are macroeconomic, due to the difficulty of access to foreign currency and high inflation, but also the lack of infrastructure.
Source: Ambito
