The initial proposal was to build it in Bahía Blanca , in the province of Buenos Aires. But finally the lobby in favor of Río Negro, the false controversy around the RIGI, the attitude of vassalage of the Rio Negro governor Alberto Weretilneck and the policy of automatic alignment of the government of Javier Milei with Anglo-Saxon imperialism prevailed over the aspirations of the Buenos Aires government .
As confirmed by the governor, Axel Kicillof, in February 2023 the province of Buenos Aires together with YPF reserved the land to carry out the LNG project in the port of Bahía Blanca . The director of the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA), Hernán Letcher , spread through social networks that this decision was based on the fact that the port of Bahía Blanca has extensive experience and operates more than 1,000 vessels per year ; operates more than 300 vessels and more than 15 million tons of LNG exports ; It already has a dock available ; The port has all the necessary infrastructure and connectivity : gas pipelines, oil pipelines, polyducts, routes that connect it with the entire country, railways and it has an international airport ; It is an estuarine port , with shelter, that operates almost every day of the year ; the water temperature is warmer , which favors the liquefaction process ; Bahía Blanca is the most important petrochemical complex in Argentina and the fifth in Latin America , which means that it could add greater value at origin to these exports .
As we can see, these are the objective advantages that Bahía Blanca has over Punta Colorada. But clearly the determination to change location was a political decision based on economic interests that were disguised as “technical analysis.” It cannot be overlooked that the officials who voted in favor of changing the location of the plant come from companies with oil interests :
· Horacio Marín , President of YPF, comes from Tecpetrol (from the Techint Group, Paolo Rocca );
· Eduardo Ottino , Director of YPF, also comes from Tecpetrol (from the Techint Group, Paolo Rocca );
· José Rolandi , Director of YPF, comes from CGC (from the Corporación América group, Eduardo Eurnekian );
· Nicolás Posse , former Chief of Staff, also comes from CGC (from the Corporación América group, Eduardo Eurnekian ).
For this reason, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant will be built in the province of Río Negro, in the area of Punta Colorada, town of Sierra Grande, where the enhancement and modernization of an old port in disused with access to the Argentine Sea . The total investment in the project is 30 billion dollars and would be carried out, in stages, over a decade .
This is a perfect fit for Anglo-Saxon imperialism since the new LNG plant that YPF will build with the state oil company of Malaysia, a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations, is located in the Sierra Grande area, barely 22 kilometers of the field linked to the magnate and subject of the British crown, Joe Lewis, through the manager of some of his companies, Nicolás Van Ditmar, including Bahía Dorada and Hidden Lake.
With a landing strip 1800 meters long and 30 meters wide , it is almost equivalent to the size of the Jorge Newbery Airport runway.
From the town of Sierra Grande, and going east, to the town of Playas Doradas. Halfway along the road, turning right, heading south, you will find the entrance to Bahía Dorada airport, as shown on Google Map . It is a private, hidden track that is under the power of British businessman Joe Lewis. It is not a small runway, but was built to be used by large aircraft. It has no control tower, no customs, or state authorities that control its actions. It has a hangar of 1600 square meters .
As the Paco Urondo Agency puts it in an article that deals with the properties of the British magnate, the fields that Lewis owns in Chile and Argentina, plus the military base that the invading British enemy together with NATO have in Monte Agradable (Mount Pleasant ) constitute a strategic military device to control, and if necessary, occupy our Patagonia.
In matters of such importance , all the variables must be exposed in the public debate, because the opposite is playing into the hands of the enemy .
Nothing new under the sun
The Malaysian oil company is the second most important partner for YPF in terms of investment volume .
The relationship between YPF and Petronas began at the end of 2014 when they signed an association for the development of the unconventional block “La Amarga Chica” in Vaca Muerta, Neuquén , where Petronas has invested 1.5 billion dollars .
The initiative includes the production of gas in Vaca Muerta , its transportation by a 620 kilometer gas pipeline from the field to the processing terminal and its industrialization .
The project, if completed, “will allow the country to make a qualitative leap in the generation of foreign currency, with a total planned production capacity of 25 million tons of gas per year, to be carried out in stages” according to Ámbito .
The great long-term bet to continue diversifying dependency
YPF will open participation in the project to other companies, continuing with the dependency diversification model. To substantiate this, the new managers maintain that: "It will be viable if a single project is carried out among all the companies in the country because the infrastructure is gigantic. To compete with the US, we have to make the investment together."
The agreement with Petronas plans to begin exporting LNG from 2027 , with a LNG tanker. In principle it would be about 6 million cubic meters per day (mm3/d) . But within two years it is expected that a floating terminal will be installed only for YPF and the Malaysians, and then another ship will arrive for the rest of the industry to use. At that time the total export would climb to 40 mm3/d .
Finally, the third stage aims to launch an onshore LNG plant in 2031 , which would add another additional 40 mm3/d , and which together with four other strong companies in the sector , will produce a total of 80 mm3/d .
The ARGLNG initiative seeks to achieve an export of 120 mm3/d for a value of 16 billion dollars in the next decade. Let's see how many of those dollars are invested in our country or if they are only going to increase the gigantic flows of capital flight , those open veins through which they bleed Argentina.
Río Negro proposes to consolidate itself as a mining and energy province, subordinating itself to the delivery
In its presentation, the administration of Río Negro highlighted the presence of 670 mining quarries in its territory where siliceous sands, raw materials for concrete and synthetic products can be extracted. Currently, the province has 3 treatment plants and 5 production companies that develop 2.5 million tons annually .
The proposal would revalue the energy development of the province since it contemplates the construction of a new route to Vaca Muerta , which involves the development of a 24.2 kilometer section from the intersection with provincial route 17 and provincial route 8. Of this In this way, it would connect with the Oldelval pipeline, the crossing with the El Nene canyon pipe and the Shell plant pipeline.
From there, a new 95-kilometer stretch would begin from the outskirts of General Roca to the intersection with provincial route 8, drawing a parallel with the Oldeval-NEUBA gas pipeline, where a topographically flat area with few slopes predominates, he reported. the Ámbito newspaper.
The governor of Río Negro, Alberto Weretilneck , highlighted the decision. "From the first moment we trusted in the technical and economic rigor that was going to be used for the definition. The people of Rio Negro will accompany this decision with all responsibility so that the project is carried out without any type of obstacles. We will give our best, knowing that Patagonia is developing and our country begins its path of global insertion in the export of LNG," he declared.
What Weretilneck did not explain is under what conditions it will achieve this “global insertion in the export of LNG”, since if the “path” is the one traced by the diversification of the dependence imposed by the imperialist powers, deepening the delivery of our natural resources , with advantages for the monopolies to take profits outside the country, with the condition of continuing to be a country oppressed by foreign imperialism and occupied by British colonialism, we are heading towards a bad destination by land.
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