Beyond its tourist resource, Mar del Plata has its own economic problems such as unemployment or inflation. These factors also affect the province of Buenos Aires and almost all corners of the country. The economic vicissitudes are not new in Argentina, what is new is the wide range of opportunities that arose from the offshore exploration projects that the National Government enabled in three areas that are located off the coast of Mar del Plata.
The dimension of this possibility basically implies changing the productive matrix of the province of Buenos Aires with a focus on the export of gas and oil. In turn, it means diversifying the local economy itself. Export targeting would not be the only goal; Added to the production of hydrocarbons is the incorporation of foreign exchange and the supply of a series of resources with high global demand since the unfortunate Russian invasion of Ukraine that unleashed an international crisis.
Mar del Plata enters this scenario as a leading actor. The economic impact of these projects that are already underway will be very positive for the movement of the city’s portswhich will also promote the development of logistics and would have a more than favorable effect on the industries associated with the oil and gas sector.
The bidding process was carried out normally and was endorsed by the different institutes that have been studying the issue of offshore exploitation for a long time. Such is the case of the Argentine Oil and Gas Institute (IAPG), which has reported as soon as these works began that so far 50,000 kilometers of seismic have been explored and 18 wells have been drilled. All this took place without any type of ecological disaster.
The granting of areas to different companies with decades of experience in this type of maritime drilling studies is also of fundamental relevance, and we are talking about companies that can explain, as they have done, the environmental safeguards with which they come working for more than 20 years in Argentina.
Although the projects have had some standstill in the courts, due to an inexplicable local political influence that wanted to stop the activity, we are satisfied that the injunction that prevented Mar del Plata from continuing to advance in these matters has been revoked. The 3D analyzes will be completed soon and we hope that by the first quarter of 2023 we will have the first exploratory well.
Projects with so much potential in a country that presents constant crises and a lack of foreign currency that compromises the reserves for the acquisition of primary goods, cannot afford to cancel exploration as it happened for a short period of time, but unnecessary.
In this sense, Mar del Plata can incorporate one more sector into its local economy (along with tourism) and become a gas and oil power that serves as the backbone of a national development model. Although it is understandable that some voices have been heard against the coexistence between tourism and hydrocarbon exploitation, the reality is that the closest project on the Mar del Plata coast is 350 kilometers away, and according to the IAPG and the fishing chambers in the area , jobs will be invisible to the beaches.
From our union position, the objective will always be to provide the workers with the different trainings related to the subject. It is the future of our colleagues, so this is an area of action that involves us and we are ensuring that all the labor rights they deserve are fulfilled.
Likewise, it is worth emphasizing the need to properly assess the economic opportunity that is presented in an undeniable way thanks to offshore exploitation, and that in the particular case of The happy can turn it into the heart of Argentine gas and oil production.
Treasurer of the Argentine Union Federation of Oil, Gas and Biofuels (FASiPeGyBio).
Source: Ambito
