Sergio Massa gives an exam in Houston in front of the main oil companies: he seeks investments for Vaca Muerta

Economy Minister Sergio Massa is already in Houston, one of the world’s oil and energy capitals, meet companies in the sector and induce them to expand their investments in Argentinaespecially in Vaca Muerta.

Massa seeks to position the country as a center of opportunity in a time of global energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine. It is a message he repeated in Washington to President Joe Biden’s top advisers, who are very interested in the subject, and he deepens it in this huge city of glass skyscrapers, which is surrounded by rich oil wells.

The minister’s first meeting is at the Center for Energy Studies of the Baker Institute of Rice University, considered the world’s leading center in the analysis of energy issues. This center is a go-to forum for the industry and regularly organizes events where academics, experts, presidents and leaders from around the world are invited to talk about energy issues. Today, Clarin is told in this city, there is interest in what Massa has to offer.

The minister will speak there in front of the executives of the main companies concerned Vaca Muerta as Chevron, Shell, Exxon, Total, BP, Pan American Energy, Axion among others, as well as investment analysts on energy issues will listen to their presentation.

Massa will be accompanied by the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón; the president of the YPF, Pablo González; Agustín Gerez, president of the IAEA, the former Enarsa, and Alejandro Monteiro, Minister of Energy of Neuquén.

He will then have separate meetings with the authorities of ExxonMobil and then with those of Chevron, BPX Energy, BP and Total. At noon he will have lunch with representatives from the House of Special Oil Operations Companies and then visit Chevron’s global operations monitoring center.

In the meetings there will be many questions and demands. As this correspondent learned, here it is expectation among companies because they feel that with the arrival of Massa in the Economy there is an “interlocutor” with political weight to be able to take measures for the sector. They come with a baggage of “great pessimism”, which some compare to the 2001 crisis, and the list of requests is long: that they loosen stocks, that they lift the restriction on the import of productive factors, that dividends can be transferred to the abroad, among others.

Massa is cautious. He usually tells employers that he doesn’t have a magic wand and asks for patience to stabilize the economy. But I could get you some this Friday in Houston alternative to capture more investments and harnessing Vaca Muerta’s potential at this critical time.

It is estimated that it will explain to entrepreneurs the scope of decree 277, which has advantages for the sector such as the availability of foreign currency for companies investing in the area. And also, according to sources in the delegation, they will try to relaunch the resolution that gives flexibility to companies in accordance with certain guidelines in exploration and extraction, a resolution that would immediately benefit Chevron. Furthermore, it could propose the opening of the LNG investment between YPF and Petronas to the rest of the sectors.

Massa will return to Washington tonight, where the rest of his team finalizes the details of the review of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund. He has two key meetings on Monday: one with David Lipton at the Treasury Department and one at the Fund with CEO Kristalina Georgieva.