by Sergio Acevedo and Felix Herrero We understand that the oil policy of Carlos Menem, continued by the Alliance and the current administration, has not benefited the country because, in addition to privatize YPF (transferring to the private quasi-monopoly), yielded the free availability of crude oil export earnings and investment decisions.
We believe they are issues of great importance to make the model country, and that there is continuity with the policies of the nineties but for retention of export, which is an undisputed constitutional tool of the Nation, set the domestic price of oil But with the recent release of fuel prices will again increase the profits of oil companies at the expense of the people. Better a model of the features proposed for the Pre-Salt Lula, which provides one hundred percent public company that provides royalties to all states (provinces), not just oil. The wrong decision in our country was to exploit the public effort of nearly a century providing its operation, since almost all important discoveries were of YPF, while today we have lost self-sufficiency.
Regarding the ownership of the subsoil, the economist and businessman Mariano Fragueiro legislated in 1953 for the national state retaining the original domain of the subsoil. It is fairly common statement which says that the administration of the provinces would bring benefits to the country and there is no incentive for oil exploration and investment: the lack of fuels today shows the failure of the policy yesterday. The constitutional reform of 1994 was the flipside of 1949. And certainly, we think that the talent of Peron was much higher than the current standard inspired Article 124 of the Constitution, so little discussed in political campaigns, not even as envisaged in the Olivos Pact or the law declaring the need for reform and whose constitutionality would be moot if the court upheld the doctrine Fayt. "
The federal rule mining and hydrocarbon resources was Sampay as the reason for the overthrow of Irigoyen. It was because of the popular parties, radicalism, and Peronism later. His reason is clear: energy sources define a nation.
On the other hand, a country like Argentina with federal domain, it can negotiate from a stage equivalent to the oil majors, whose net worth is sometimes equal to the annual GDP of our country. Any province of Argentina is in absolute inferiority to negotiate with such corporations.
This view was corroborated by the recent history. An example: the terrible deal that made Chubut and Santa Cruz and Argentina to extend the grant of Cerro Dragon, while BP and Bridas, without even asking permission, sold our field to a company in China. A symbol of rulers not serious. If we see the extensions for Repsol-YPF or Oxy, the result is similar. Martinez de Hoz and in 1956 defended the provincialization of mineral and petroleum resources.
A second aspect to which we refer is the alleged lack of incentives for oil companies. Is false. Just look at the balance sheets of the same. Their income is obscene. None found nothing invested in exploration. All bought (or were delivered) concessions to values \u200b\u200bthat in no case involved a barrel than $ 50. The average cost of extracting a barrel does not exceed $ 6. Where's the disappointment? We know of no oil company in Argentina has returned a concession not to be profitable.
That was the model of Menem, who took us to the current situation. Nestor Kirchner's government took some measures of situation, such as export duty increases, but deepened the neoliberal model by adopting the so-called "short law" that consolidated the provincial, the uncontrolled exploitation and without recovery of reserves and privatization to extend the best concessions contracts in private law or civil, by any judge would be disqualified for "subjective injury" (Article 954 of the Civil Code) or prodigality.
The road to national development is opposite to that followed from Menem. Is not keeping the oil as a commodity rather than treating it as a strategic resource as an asset that belongs to the people and was created by God (for believers) or by nature (for unbelievers). Their existence does not obey an invention or the effort of men.
should recover for the nation strategic tools, legal and economic for energy sources, including hydrocarbon reservoirs. This may merit a constitutional amendment, but it could also be done with the current through the enactment of a federal energy bill to rebuild a public oil. It is enough to turn remittances al exterior para que las petroleras internacionales o las nuevas, acostadas en el poder, paguen los activos que adquirieron o las acciones que compraron con la propia renta de YPF y no reinviertan sus utilidades en la búsqueda de reservas.
Esto puede hacerse prohibiendo por ley la prórroga de las concesiones y expropiando los derechos de las petroleras que lograron esas vergonzosas prórrogas, y con una investigación administrativa y penal seria que ponga luz en un negocio que genera enormes sospechas.
No inventamos nada. Yrigoyen, Mosconi, Perón o Sampay construyeron un camino. Sería bueno que la dirigencia, en lugar de dejarse llevar por neoliberalismos caducos, pensara primero en la Nación. No solamente para reivindicar la story without myths, but to have a present and future well-being and hope. Nothing more, nothing less.
Acevedo was governor of Santa Cruz.
Smith is an economist and lawyer, he held among other positions in the area, director of Yacyretá and of Salto Grande ..
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