Buenos Aires (EFE).- Argentina inaugurated this Sunday, Independence Day, the first section of the new President Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline (GPNK), work necessary for the development of Vaca Muerta, the second unconventional hydrocarbon reserve in the world, with which the Executive hopes to change the “history” of the country.
This act brought together the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández; the vice president, Cristina Fernández, and the Minister of Economy and pro-government presidential candidate, Sergio Massa, who offered a partisan “unity photo” with a view to the October elections, after the disagreements between them.
The head of the Treasury, who was the first to speak, thanked the president for carrying out the project against the request of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce spending on public works and announced that in 15 days the gas pipeline of the north, second section of the gas pipeline, and on August 4, oil exports to Chile would begin.
“My thanks to the president who went ahead with this project when the IMF asked us to stop it, because this work will be enjoyed by our future generations,” said Massa.
A work that gives many options to Argentina
For the Government, the gas pipeline represents “energy sovereignty” in the South American country, since the work will allow Argentina to replace energy imports with self-supply, together with the possibility of projecting itself as an international supplier, and replacing part of the diesel in generation electricity from thermal power plants in a country where 53% of energy comes from gas.
“65% of our energy is thermal and gas is our transition energy, we are no longer going to import gas by ship or from Bolivia, because we are going to use gas from our subsoil, from Vaca Muerta,” added Massa.
In this sense, the Executive expects to reverse the negative energy balance, since the gas pipeline will save 2.1 billion dollars this year and by 2024 they expect to hoard 4.2 billion dollars in imports, according to official calculations.
For her part, the vice president, Cristina Fernández, under whose second government (2007-2015) this project began, offered her public support to Massa’s candidacy: “I thank you Sergio, for the strength that you have been putting into him since you were minister , you did not wrinkle ”.
However, he warned that the country will not save itself by exporting ‘commodities’ and stressed the need to generate “good wages and quality jobs”.
The president highlights the result as a large logo
This first section, of 573 kilometers, was built in less than ten months, from the towns of Tratayén, province of Neuquén (southwest), crossing Río Negro (patagonia) and La Pampa (center), until reaching the town of Salliqueló, province from Buenos Aires.
It was developed with resources from the Argentine Treasury, which according to the government would be recovered in two years, but the Ministry of Economy warned that private contributions will be required for the second tranche.
Finally, the Head of State, Alberto Fernández, closed the event, highlighting that the infrastructure works were a decision made by the entire political arc that makes up his government, with “Argentine resources, companies and workers.”
“If governing is generating work, as the general said, then, general (Juan Domingo Perón, founder of Peronism), I have complied,” the president closed.
The entry The Argentine Government inaugurates a key work in its economy was first published in EFE Noticias.