Daniel Gonzalez vice minister of Energy and Mining, minimized the Exxon exit or other multinationals in the oil business, and instead said that “It was extraordinary news.”
The official gave his explanation: “When last year we saw that Exxon left and it was said ‘the multis are leaving’, we did not see that Exxon had one of the best fields in Vaca Muerta with Bajo el Choique and for 10 years had never developed it. Now Pluspetrol has it, which is already producing 20,000 barrels. And that purchase made him move his portfolio, which allowed enter Geopark or Continental which is in the top 10 of independent oil companies in the United States.”
The former CEO of YPF wanted to close his presentation at the forum organized by the specialized site Econojournal with a clarification: “I wanted to highlight something that I think did not make enough noise and that is the entry of Continental into Argentina.”
For González, the fact that the company magnate Harold Hammknown as the “Rey del fracking”, It is “a paradigm shift.” As he explained, although Vaca Muerta improved a lot in productivity, it still has a lot to advance. “We need to replicate some of the best practices of North American unconventional activity.”
After Continental, González believes, more companies would come. “These companies are going to begin to see that their inventory of wells in the United States is not as robust as the one they had and that here only 5% of Vaca Muerta is developed and we are just getting started.”
González said that they are trying to normalize the energy system in Argentina. “We started last year with a significant drop in subsidies. We went from spending 1.5% to 0.5% of GDP for Budget 2026.”
He also highlighted the decline of state interventionism of previous governments. “A normalized system will be seen in things like what happened last week with the (tender for) hydroelectric plants or the expansion of the TGS network with private initiative or the number of companies that presented themselves for storage in AMBA. The private sector reacts quickly to credibility.”
“Today the price of oil in Argentina is free. It seems obvious, but in the last 20 years it was not obvious in Argentina,” he said. And he mentioned that this deregulation “has had an important part in the growth of Vaca Muerta and in the midstream (transport), which is a reality and the State created the conditions, but we didn’t put a handle“.
González pointed out that the recent removal of withholdings on conventional crude oil is in line with the tax reduction that the Government foresees “as the country grows and we attack expenses.”
However, he made a clarification: “We are not going to promise immediate reduction of withholdings on unconventional oil. We know that it is a bad tax and that hopefully, as the country grows and we continue to attack public spending, there will be room to continue reducing taxes, including that one. But today it is not on the agenda to remove the withholding on unconventional gas.” He recalled that future gas exports will not have withholdings either because they will all be with RIGI projects.
precisely about the RIGI, which expires in July 2026maintained that during the summer the Government will see if it is extended or not, but that its recommendation would be that it be extended.
In addition, he said that they are working on the tender for the expansion of electric transportation in private hands, something that “has never been done in Argentina” and that the first tender will be in the AMBA.