Alberto Fernández bets on turning Argentina into “a huge energy supplier”.

Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernandez, has assured Thursday that the government plans to build a legal system that encourages investors to “seize opportunities” for the country to become “a huge energy supplier”.

The Argentine president has presented, together with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royon, the ‘Gas 4 and 5 Energy Sustainability Plan’ in order to increase the production of natural gas, and thus replace the imports made today, as reported in a statement by the Presidency of Argentina.

“We are going to go ahead with all the incentives, providing the necessary regulations that the activity is demanding, and we are going to demand investment, production and work to those who benefit from this”, said Fernández during the presentation of the plan.

The measure will consist in the call to companies to extend the current gas exploitation contracts until 2024, in order to later ensure an increase in gas production, as reported by the agency Télam.

“We have the opportunity in a first stage to achieve that natural gas is distributed throughout the country. That is why we are building a new gas pipeline, which is the first step towards self-sufficiency, because we will achieve that nearly 90 percent of the demand we have today for gas can be generated with our own production”, assured Fernández.

“After that will come the second challenge, which is to see how we can liquefy this gas to take it beyond our borders,” he added.

All in all, the Argentine president has pointed out that the country has the opportunity to be “a central player” in the energy production of the future. “(The opportunity) We must not let it pass. Not for the sake of the companies, not for the sake of a government: for the sake of Argentine men and women,” said Fernández.

For his part, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, has stated that the challenge set by the Government is that “Argentina’s energy production in 2027 will have the same size and export weight as that of proteins in the gross domestic product”.

“The country can go down a path that generates in the energy sector a second big player in the gross product together with agribusiness,” Massa said, maintaining that “the country will be one step away (from self-sufficiency), at 90 percent, in 2023,” as reported by Télam.