Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 08 2020

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil
Argentina preparing to lift
gas price freeze later this year
ARGENTINA’S government is looking to remove controls on natural gas and electricity prices later this year, according to Production Minister Matías Kulfas.
Kulfas told reporters at a press conference last week that Buenos Aires might be able to lift restrictions by June. He also indicated that the government did not intend to reinstate price controls, saying: “It is not a permanent freeze.”
Indeed, he said, President Alberto Fernán- dez’s administration has set June as its target date for starting to raise gas and power tariffs. He stressed, though, that Buenos Aires intended to review pricing regimes with the aim of ensur- ing that these commodities remain “accessible” to consumers and that tariffs are “reasonable” in light of production costs.
Fernandez, who took office late last year, froze gas and power tariffs in a bid to bring Argentina’s inflation rates, which reached 54% in 2019, under control. Kulfas acknowledged the president’s intent, describing the price controls as “an instrument that can contribute to reduc- ing inflation.” He also said that the government would work to devise a mechanism by which energy prices could continue to rise as long as they did not push inflation rates up too much.
The price freeze has helped Argentina’s energy consumers, but it has imposed a burden on companies seeking to develop gas deposits
BRAZIL
Oil workers’ strike in Brazil comes to an end
by cutting into their revenues. As a result, gas production came to 126.9mn cubic metres per day in December of last year, below the figure of 128.7 mcm per day recorded in the same month of 2018 (and also below the full-year average of 135 mcm per day in 2019).
Even as gas yields have declined, though, crude oil output has gone up. With foreign investors such as Total (France) shifting their focus from gas to oil, Argentina saw production expand to 516,689 barrels per day in Decem- ber 2019, up by 3.9% on the year-ago figure of 498,713 bpd.™
Argentina froze natural gas prices in the hope of curbing inflation (Photo: YPF)
BRAZIL’S united oil workers unions – United Federation of Oil Workers, known by its Portu- guese acronym FUP – called a halt to ongoing work stoppages on Monday, February 24.
Members of FUP began striking in early Feb- ruary in response to the decision by Petrobras, the national oil company (NOC), to shut down a fertiliser plant in Parana State. About 21,000 workers, equivalent to a third of the NOC’s total staff, joined the strike to protest about the clo- sure, which is expected to lead to the elimination of 1,000 jobs.
The strikers demonstrated in 13 separate
Brazilian states. They also complained about state-owned Petrobras’ plan to privatise some of its assets, including several large oil refirneries, and streamline its staff.
The work stoppage continued unabated for about three weeks, even after a Brazilian court ruled that it was illegal. The court also said that labour groups that refused to comply with orders to return to work might be fined up to $115,000 per day.
Subsequently, a labour court in the capital
city Brasilia convened an arbitration hearing in
the hope of bringing an end to the strike. 
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 08 27•February•2020