“Our utopia was democracy forever and I think we have fulfilled it, because democracy, beyond its controversies, allowed Argentina to move forward,” said the head of state.
“However -he added- we do not have the equality we want, and I propose the utopia of equality”, affirmed the President in Ensenada, accompanied by the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royon; the local mayor, Mario Secco; and the presidents of YPF and Pampa Energía -Marcelo Mindlin and Pablo González- the two companies involved in the project.
“Argentina has a very rich center and peripheries to the north and south that must be developed; Argentina is one and all must have the same possibilities of development,” said Alberto Fernández. After noting that gas production in Vaca Muerta “multiplied by three,” he stated that the energy issue arises “in every conversation with every world leader.”
“Today Lula (the president of Brazil) sells us electricity and we tell him ‘we want to sell you gas,'” the President graphically alluding to the Brazilian president, who recently visited Argentina.
Alberto Fernández also said that Argentina should take advantage of the fact that gas production in Bolivia is “in decline” and “today we can replace the gas that Bolivia does not have with our gas.”
Referring to the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, which is in the middle of the construction stage, he said that when the first stage is finished “we will have taken the first step to redistribute the gas to Argentina and then comes the second stage to bring that gas to Santa Fe, and from there to Brazil”.
“We can be gas suppliers in Europe, I was talking to the President of the European Union and explaining the possibilities, given the gas that Europe lacks due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” said the president.
He also highlighted the potential of lithium in the north of the country, assuring that “66 percent of the world’s lithium is in the region and if we turn it into goods that the world demands, we have a huge opportunity.”
