Sobisch slams Kirchner's energy stance

Argentina's national oil policy is wrong, the government is threatening oil companies and President Néstor Kirchner is a hypocrite, Neuquén province governor Jorge Sobisch said. "Everybody knows very well that the sustainability of natural resources is maintained over time with investment... but these will not appear while we have an erroneous policy that does not respect what has been signed," a provincial government statement quoted him as saying at a regional energy integration workshop. The federal government refusal to increase rates has kept investment to a minimum, in turn cutting production and putting fewer royalties into Neuquén's coffers. The federal government has furthermore generated a climate of distrust and insufficient dialogue between companies and those responsible for energy sector planning and the provision of legal and political security, Sobisch said. When Néstor Kirchner was governor of Santa Cruz province and participated in the federal organization of hydrocarbons-producing provinces (OFEPHI), "he waved the flag of federalism and stood up for the interests of his province and all oil producing provinces," Sobisch said. Kirchner is now overruling provinces in terms of policy, and on a March 14 visit to Chile said that Argentina is not an oil or gas producing country. "If the national government says that Argentina is not an oil or gas producing country, and is rather a country that has oil and gas, I as governor of Neuquén say that we are an oil and gas producing province," Sobisch said. "There is a great hypocrisy on the part of the President," he added. "We are going to defend these [hydrocarbons] interests, not to the detriment of anyone, but in favor of the defense of natural resources and the sustainability of these resources," he said. Neuquén borders Chile and is a big believer in integration. "We believe that Argentina and Chile are absolutely complementary in economical, political and regional terms," energy consultant and former chief of staff in Neuquén province government, Jorge Brillo, said at the workshop.