Both leaders plan to advance in bilateral agreements, after seeing the faces during the World Cup in December. The role of Vaca Muerta in the negotiation
For iProfessional
01/06/2023 – 6:50 p.m.
Mauricio Macri will receive the Emir of Qatar, Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani, in the exclusive country Cumelén, located three kilometers from Villa La Angostura. It will be another meeting that both will have after having met on various occasions during the last World Cup in the Persian Gulf country, a few weeks ago, where the former Argentine president went in his role as head of the FIFA Foundation.
Besides bilateral trade agreements as an objective, the electoral context to be able to carry them out is pointed out as a theme of the summit in Patagonia. The emir of Qatar arrived in Argentina after having spent the New Year in Punta del Este. He did it in the company of Gastón “Gato” Gaudiothe tennis player, dedicated to businesses linked to the hydrocarbons industry and with whom the Arab president maintains an extensive relationship.
Macri meets with the Emir of Qatar
Macri, whose political destiny is still uncertain and in the midst of the disputes of his successors in Together for Change (JxC), has perhaps been the Argentine politician who has had the most visibility during the World Cup that the Argentine National Team obtained in Qatar. In parallel, he has paraded with the leader of the monarchy that runs the country ranked as the fifth largest natural gas producer in the world and fifteenth in oil.
Vaca Muerta is one of the main points. In Argentina, the American multinational ExxonMobil Corporation signed an agreement at the end of 2018 with Qatar Energythe company in the hands of the State of Qatar, to keep 30% of the unconventional hydrocarbon operations of the deposit from Neuquen. “It represents the world’s second unconventional gas reserve,” Macri used to repeat during his stay at the Casa Rosada.
that was the first step into Qatar’s unconventional hydrocarbons industry, whose multinationals depend directly on the absolute monarchy that has been governed by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. This is because in the lands of the Persian Gulf you can obtain conventional gas, without the fracking technique, since the deposits there are shallow and do not require deep penetrations.
Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani came to the throne of Qatar in 2013, at just 33 years old, after the abdication of his father, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. According to Forbes, his personal wealth amounts to US$2.5 billion. He is also in charge of the destination of the investment fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), to which all the major global brands of the Arab country respond, such as the club psgwhose control he delegated to his friend Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
Macri and the Emir of Qatar will meet again to talk about politics and investments.
The last meeting that Macri had on Argentine soil with the emir Al Thani, the same one who put the royal robe on Lionel Messi seconds before lifting the World Cup, it was in October 2018 during the Cambiemos government. Like in the past, The Qatari monarch aspires to negotiate funds to invest in the country, find out the fate of Argentina’s bi-monetary economy and extend his commercial hand to the opposition leader in an election year.
