Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Gov’t calls for oil investments, says country is in ‘transition stage’

Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich explained that the country currently imports u$s 12 billion dollars in energy but said that “strenuous efforts” are being made to increase local oil production and urged private companies to raise investment levels.

“We are going through a transition stage. Strenuous efforts are being made to increase production levels,” the chief of ministers said in his daily press briefing at government house when asked about Argentina’s oil imports.

“Argentina needs to explore and exploit more to guarantee energy self-supply,” he said. “Private companies are not showing the same production levels of (state-controlled energy firm) YPF.”

The kirchnerite official praised the country’s shale oil and gas reserves, and reiterated president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s remarks of Argentina being considered “the new Saudi Arabia” and predicted that “an expansion phase” will follow the current “transition stage.