Argentina to Become Self-Sufficient in Energy Production

[Judi Lynn]

Argentina to Become Self-Sufficient in Energy Production
Posted date: March 20, 2013 In: Global News, South America
From SME Times

YPF, the oil company controlled by the Argentine state following the expropriation of a 51 percent stake in the corporation from Spain’s Repsol, has set the goal of achieving energy independence, an objective that could be met in “five or six years”, CEO Miguel Galuccio said.

“It is possible to think about regaining self-sufficiency in five or six years,” Galuccio told Radio Nacional.

“It is a matter of having good planning, an investment plan, and putting all our energy into substituting (imports) with local energy, which is going to be much cheaper,” Galuccio said.

YPF plans “aggressive investment” of about $5 billion for “petroleum and gas exploration and production”, Galuccio said.

More:
http://www.energytribune.com/75182/argentina-to-become-self-sufficient-in-energy-production

[msongs]

1. too bad our leadership is not interested in such a concept lol nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. Yeah, drill, baby, drill. Let's tear up the arctic. n/t

[sabrina 1]

3. I remember reading that they were self sufficient at one time until the usual suspects

invaded their economy and destroyed it as they have everywhere else they interfere. Argentina's resources and well run organizations were sold to the highest bidders. I am really glad to see them take back their sovereignty. I hope it is successful.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for that. I was wondering if that was what might have been behind the guy's quote

in the article:

“It is possible to think about regaining self-sufficiency in five or six years,” Galuccio told Radio Nacional.

I hadn't learned that much about Argentina, but was thinking it sure sounded like they got privatized!

Well, that would be one HUGE step forward. No time like the present!

[naaman fletcher]

5. It would be interesting to find that article

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2013, 12:22 AM - Edit history (1)

According to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YPF

Nothing could be further from the truth, or at least that is how I read it.

[sabrina 1]

6. The link doesn't work for me for some reason. As far as Argentina's energy independence

it was not an article, it was a documentary of the history of Argentina leading up the crash that ruined their economy. Naomi Klein has also written about Argentina and what is happening now in Europe, the destruction of sovereignty, the neo liberal 'policies' that have ruined Europe and this country economically, were first practiced, almost identically, in first and second world countries. Argentina should have been a warning to the rest of the world about the dangerous threat of the IMF and the The World Bank. But then we never thought that First World Countries would ever be assaulted, invaded and destroyed economically the way Argentina was.

But now it is obvious. The selling off of a country's resources, as in Argentina, now in Greece and elsewhere. And yes, as the article here implies, Argentina once had a very good and independent energy program. It was grabbed by the Global Cartels after the collapse of their economy.

I will try to find some links to the documentaries, but read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine to learn about Argentina, which is now happening in the First World. Selling of what used to be Public property, such as here, the Post Office, the Public Schools. The policies are the same. We are being robbed, as they were, and the vultures are standing by, as they did in Arg., to buy up this country and Europe also.

[naaman fletcher]

8. Edited to correct link. sorry. nt.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Ah, ha ha ha ha. Some butthead attempted to trip us up on this. I decided to take a quick look,

knowing we were NOT wrong, and found the following immediately:

Menem assumed duties in the midst of a major economic crisis which included hyperinflation and recession. After a failed stabilization program sponsored by Bunge y Born (a leading agribusiness firm), and another one involving the conversion of time deposits into government bonds, newly appointed Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo introduced a series of reforms in 1991 and a fixed exchange rate of the Argentine peso to the US dollar. This Convertibility Plan was followed by a wholesale privatization of utilities (including the oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), the post office, telephone, gas, electricity and water utilities). A massive influx of foreign direct investment funds helped tame inflation (from 5,000% a year in 1989 to single digits by 1993) and improved long-stagnant productivity, though at the cost of considerable unemployment.

Menem's successful turnaround of the economy made the country one of the top performers of the developing countries in the world. Argentina's GDP (below 1973 levels when Menem took office) increased 35% from 1990 to 1994 and fixed investment, by 150%.[6] Negotiations with Brazil resulted in the Mercosur customs union, in March 1991, and on November 14, he addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress, being one of only three Argentine presidents who had that distinction (together with Raúl Alfonsín and Arturo Frondizi). Menem was reelected to the presidency by a large majority in the 1995 elections.

The early success of the dollar peg (when the dollar was falling) was followed by increasing economic difficulties when the dollar began to rise from 1995 onwards in international markets. High external debt also caused increasing problems as financial crises affecting other countries (the Tequila Crisis in Mexico, the East Asian financial crisis, the Russian financial crisis in 1998) led to higher interest rates for Argentina as well. At the end of his term, Argentina's country risk premium was a low 6.10 percentage points above yield on comparable US Treasuries.

In the years immediately following Menem's term, the combination of fixed-rate convertibility and high fiscal deficits proved unsustainable, despite massive loan support from the International Monetary Fund, and had to be abandoned in 2002, with disastrous effects on the Argentine economy. Though most of the State enterprises privatized during his tenure remain in private hands, perhaps the most significant economic legacy of his administration, private pension funds, have since largely been returned to the public sector. First licensed in 1994, these grew to over us$ 30 billion in assets, but suffered large losses during the 1998–2002 crisis, and by 2008, depended on subsidies to cover minimum monthly pensions. Most affiliates, moreover, had stopped making contributions.[7] The 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the problem, and the funds were largely replaced by the public social security system in late 2008.[8]

More:
the simplest google grab in the world, good old Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Menem

[center]~~~~~[/center]
He absolutely devastated the country. He ran them into the ditch. He was impeached. He has just been tried for illegal gun sales. What a shit. Friend of the whole George H. W. Bush family, including all the sons. Typical right-winger, just like the D.U. trolls.

[naaman fletcher]

9. Huh?

The contention was that "they were self sufficient at one time".

Did you find something to support that?

[sabrina 1]

10. Thank you, I couldn't remember his name, but he was featured prominently in the documentary

I watched and it was heart-breaking to see his deceptions, his embrace of the IMF, his total betrayal and selling out of the country. And yes, he was impeached.

Argentina had a very efficient and independent energy program. That part of the documentary airc, when they sold it out, was devastating to watch.

I will try to find a link to the documentary. Much has been written about Argentina's economic collapse and we need to learn from what happened there, because THEY ARE DOING IT HERE! And to Greece (see the sale of Greeks Islands eg). As someone said, it was worse than an invading army because the enemy was much more insidious.

Thanks for the links. No wonder they hated Chavez. He was the first leader to start the turnaround, to stop the wreckage they were reaping across the region, to expose them and to deny them the opportunity to do what they did in Argentina and are now poised to do to us.

[ocpagu]

12. Argentines have a tradition of avoiding saying his name.

They believe it brings bad luck.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/president-menems-visit-argentines-fear-their-leaders-jinx-1181109.html

[ocpagu]

11. Argentina used to export oil, a lot of it to Brazil. They have to import it now.

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2013, 04:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Repsol dried YPF's oil wells off and didn't invest a single peso in searching new oil fields or even keep their production at a growing level. Just took all the profit to Madrid.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11083194

[Judi Lynn]

13. That is much-appreciated information. I never had known about it.

Thanks for the memory refresher with that link to the earlier news, which no doubt most of us in this forum remember.

It makes even more sense now that some of us have learned more about that situation.

The image of companies sucking the life out of countries, bleeding them dry of their own resources, using their population as cheap labor, then whisking all the profits out of the country is repulsive, disgusting, should be illegal!

Thanks.