(ADN).- The Justicialista party issued an extensive and harsh statement against the Río Negro Government project through which it intends to extend the hydrocarbon concessions. He supported the mayors – like Catriel – in their claims. He warned about the “bonus”, the loss of royalties, jobs and production.
The PJ leadership warned that the initiative that Parliament will discuss is not an extension, but rather “hides” a renegotiation. He complained about the lack of “transparency” in this process, and asked Governor Alberto Weretilneck to the current commission to renegotiate oil contracts.
The document
The Justicialist Party expresses its concern about a new advance by the provincial executive branch attempting to grant itself the full amount of power in defining the continuity of energy and hydrocarbon policy. Through project N 635-24 presented to the Legislature of the Province, the Governor, concealing a NEW RENEGOTIATION OF THE HYDROCARBON CONCESSIONS, under the assumption of mere extension of the terms of the concessions, seeks authorization for the Secretary of Energy and Environment of the province defines the future of the Hydrocarbon Concessions for the next ten years.
Under the supposed ‘extension’ procedure, renegotiations of the clauses of current contracts are hidden, changing the terms and conditions of the exploitation and exploration concessions of hydrocarbon areas, enabling the Governor through the Secretary of Energy to modify and even condone royalties, fees, taxes, bonds and renegotiate all the commitments agreed in the current concessions in direct negotiations with the companies and modifying the distribution of income, seriously harming the municipalities, mainly the producers, WITHOUT ANY OBJECTIVE GUIDELINES.
We are witnessing a process that exceeds a mere extension of the term of concessions, where the procedures are not clear, but we also absolutely lack the information available to make this type of definitions that compromise our future, in a of the productive activities of greatest relevance to the province. The laws that guarantee access to public information have not been complied with, the situation of the current concessions is not stated, whether or not they have fulfilled their investment plans and their environmental remediation commitments. We do not know what objective criteria will be used to determine the so-called “Extension Bonus”, what will be the bonuses, taxes, commitments that will be imposed, eliminated or imposed reductions, and that in the end it is proposed to be distributed among municipalities, there being total uncertainty regarding the other taxes agreed upon in the concessions currently in force.
The municipalities will be affected by the powers that are intended to be given to the governor to condone royalties, fees, taxes, bonds and renegotiate all commitments agreed in the current concessions. These decisions are intended to be developed unilaterally but, as they are shared resources, local governments will be the ones who will suffer the most from the impacts of these “agreements”, reducing their monthly income. Because if there is something that is clear in the project, it is the new way of distributing the funds received, with the certainty that it is only with respect to the so-called “Extension Bonus” and if we compare it with the “fixed bonus” of previous renegotiations, it It intends to distribute it with percentages much lower than those that the oil-producing municipalities have always obtained, seriously harming them, added to the fact that of the other contributions, bonuses and benefits currently in force, the project only reflects silence and uncertainty.
For these reasons, from our party we accompany and support the efforts of our mayors and mayors, who demand the resources that correspond to their territories and their people and we expect from the government the willingness to reconsider the distribution scheme and not move forward. on the construction of unilateral decision-making mechanisms that do nothing but call into question the transparency of the processes.
Finally, and in the face of the enormous employment crisis and recession that our country and our province are going through, we denounce that the project under analysis removes, in relation to current regulations, commitments to companies regarding the hiring of local labor (it is eliminated the commitment established at 80%) and eliminates the commitment to buy local. This is a huge impact for our people, who expect that investments and development of our natural resources will lead to employment opportunities, insertion and improvements in the quality of life, but it is also a very hard blow to SMEs and companies. local and regional and to the development of new companies that can grow in connection with the development of hydrocarbon activity in Rio Negro.
As a political force that seeks to improve the conditions of production and insertion of our province in the country, which defends employment, work and value-added production as central axes of the development of our people. As a political force that understands, with a future perspective, the strategic value of the riches of our soil and the potential that the decisions that today are intended to be made between rooster and midnight have for the next decade, we propose that NOTHING GOOD CAN BE GENERATED FROM PROCESSES THAT ARE NOT THEY SUSTAIN IN A TRANSPARENT AND CLEAR MANNER, WITHOUT INFORMATION, WITHOUT TECHNICAL RIGOR THAT THE HYDROCARBON SECTOR REQUIRES AND OVERSHOWING MUNICIPAL AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION. We also urge Governor Alberto Weretilneck to convene as appropriate the current renegotiation commission for oil contracts, to call on citizens in general and particularly the mayors who will see municipal resources affected, to work collectively, as already We have done it in our province during the previous renegotiation processes, to establish clear parameters, criteria and standards so that the income from hydrocarbon activity and its distribution in our province has the transparency and legitimacy that such a relevant and strategic activity deserves to promote provincial and municipal development in a collective and equitable manner.
