Vaca Muerta: UIA calls for fiscal stability and free movement of capital for investments

The UIA Vice President for Industrial Development, Luis Betnazaasked that there be rules of fiscal stability and free movement of capital for the investments required in the Vaca Muerta field, where both gas and oil are extracted using the “fracking” method, which is not only expensive but also requires a capital injection above any commitment made in the country.

“The development of Vaca Muerta it will require tens of billions of dollars annually. It is a greatness that it is out of scale compared to what we usually manage in Argentina“said Betnaza, who is a director of the Techint group, currently the largest gas producer in that Neuquén field, through its subsidiary Tecpetrol.

During the UIA meeting for the Industry Day, at the headquarters of the manufacturing entity, Betnaza said that the development of Vaca Muerta “is equivalent to that of the Argentine countryside as a whole”. But which, at the same time, is an activity that requires astronomical investments to start, and also to be able to continue to operate year after year.

“Vaca Muerta, as a feature, is a very unproductive deposit, the investment that must be made to extract a certain volume is enormous compared to the productivity it has. We are talking about the annual decline of a Vaca Muerta 70 E well-being at the same time, for give you an idea: the letter of intent signed by YPF and Petronas implies a regular production of approximately 130 million cubic meters of gas per day, which is the equivalent of the entire production of Argentina today, “added the executive . “This is just the project they have, then there’s our project, by Techint,” he said, referring to the Fortín de Piedra area, which currently produces 20% of the gas produced in the country.

According to Betnaza, the development of Vaca Muerta “is of a magnitude that could revolutionize Argentina, which gives us, on the one hand, enormous optimism and a huge desire to continue development, but what we need to do is reduce to minimal impact that means externalities not related to business. Here’s where I would say that the central issue is the possibility of inflows and outflows of capital that allow for the financing of work, and fiscal stability, which is a central issue. “

On the tax issue, Betnaza asked that investors’ risks be limited exclusively to the business itself. “Vaca Muerta will require rules of the game referring to everything that has to do with the tax issue, that is, a stable tax regime that facilitates the possibility that those who take the risk, in the end, are the normal risks that we take a company, commercial risks. Whether prices are there or not, it is part of the business risk. What we cannot, with such huge volumes of investments, add country risks which, it seems to me, in this context we should minimize “.