The governor of Neuquén, Rolando “Rolo” Fugueroaurged hydrocarbon businessmen to accompany investments in the sector with more works necessary to develop the province and He assured that the “only way” for Vaca Muerta to compete with the big oil and gas players is to “play as a team”, with “win-win” agreements.
“Neuquén is a province in which every four years the electoral future is settled through transparent elections. There are different proposals, different perspectives, different perspectives on how to generate public policies. What is not discussed is the State policy that we carry, which is hydrocarbons,” said the president in his opening speech at the AOG Patagonia 2024 carried out by the IAPG in Neuquén. “That is not discussed here,” he insisted, and He defended the legal security they provide in his district.
“The investor can be sure that he will invest in Neuquén, he knows what the rules of the game are going to be. It is very important to have a State that has a surplus, that is orderly, because it is very important to achieve social peace, that the rules of the game are clear, that when the businessman wants to invest he does not have any type of conflict. “Conflict delays, conflict makes you less efficient,” he assessed before an auditorium full of expo attendees, the main businessmen in the sector and dozens of officials.
“To be able to achieve all these things,” he continued, “we have to make an effort because we are going to compete with the best in the world. It is like we are going to compete against the NBA, in this case the NBA but with energy. Now, how could we win the dream team? One can play alongside another, but it is enough to play a good game. And finally in the final minutes a consolidated team ends up winning. The only way to beat the Dream Team is to play as a team, to build a team. “And this is where I think we all have to reflect on where we have to aim and what we have to support to achieve a win-win, to win for all parties.”
Figueroa regretted that the mortality of adult males in the Vaca Muerta region due to traffic accidents reached 58%. “But so that there are no more accidents, we have to invest everything to make this happen. We have quantified how much it costs the industry to cross the city of Añelo today: it costs 50 million dollars. We have to work doing win-win and as a team, that we all contribute a little, and not only that it yields economically, but mainly that we save lives,” he stressed
The governor revealed that in a single year some 3,500 moved to Neuquén and that the growth of the industry is noticeable in population growth and the lack of basic infrastructure. “We are behind in infrastructure. We need 600 kilometers of road, we need 40 more schools, we need 50 hospitals or health care centers, we need basic services. All of this is often achieved by being orderly, having surplus, not wasting public resources, focus it on public investment, but it is also achieved by working side by side with certain sectors and it is also achieved by obtaining financing at a good rate,” he said, and estimated that today Neuquén has a deficit of US$4 ,000 million infrastructure.
“We are going to invest about 700 million dollars with our own funds next year, but we are going to get more funds to continue investing in infrastructure,” advancement.
“Vaca Muerta generates dollars, Vaca Muerta generates a surplus in the trade balance, that allows us to consolidate our economy, it will also help us to provide security to investors and hopefully it will also serve to eliminate the stocks as quickly as possible. If we are competing with other countries in the world, it will cost us the funds to come to Argentina, if they cannot be withdrawn later,” he added.
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The governor took the opportunity to remember that he is waiting for the regulation of the fine print of the RIGI to advance with his own investment promotion regime. “We are anxiously awaiting the regulation of the Hydrocarbons Law to join the RIGI as a province. After this accession to the RIGI, We are going to present an investment incentive law called Invest in Neuquén, which will help us improve our performance, including industrial, in tourism and other issues, but the fundamental thing for those who want to invest in Neuquén is that those who will have the most advantage are those who associate with Neuquén companies”, the president remarked
Figueroa took the opportunity to announce that royalty rates for conventional deposits will soon be lowered. “We have to monetize our subsoil and generate the right numbers to be able to monetize it. Let us remember that we have to monetize in these next 30 years, in this 30-year window, six times the consumption of Argentina and Chile combined. This monetization has to serve to generate the development of the province and of course it has to serve to generate dollars and to move Argentina forward, because if anything we are convinced in Neuquén that we are going to contribute to Argentina moving forward.”
Source: Ambito
