A cluster for Vaca Muerta

The conformation of a cluster is essential to generate competitiveness at Vaca Muerta thanks to greater efficiency in all the links of the chain.

In 2012, we started this process through the Shale cluster, accompanied by the Neuquén SME Center, the UTN, the guilds, the academy, the financial sector, the whole of the # 39; national and international oil and gas industry, operating and service companies and the press.

Its main objective was to convert traditional oil enclaves into efficient clusters with regional spill. The call was multiplied the following year and the one announced for 2014 was suspended.

Clusters were considered at the time as a new form of value chain organization. Local proximity and relationship building seek greater coordination and trust. These are much more flexible than those providing vertical integrations or formal relationships between companies such as networks, alliances or collaborations.

This is why Provincial Decree 966/18, establishing the Vaca Muerta Cluster as "device" and designating an "articulator", questions us about its scope and does not add too much after 6 years from the beginning of the field, beyond such an excellent spread.

Clusters encourage both competition and cooperation. Without vigorous competition, a cluster would fail, but the existence of business-to-business cooperation relationships that favor the so-called "positive-sum game" is also essential.

We do not believe that clusters are institutions to promote investment – as Adinqn. (Neuquén Investment Agency) – although these are attracted to the extent that the cluster is effective in achieving its objectives. Neither should there be the possibility to support the "neuquino buy" (where there is a request authority: Pyme Center) but without doubt the local companies will be favored because the clusters are networks in zones geographical.

It will inflate with a new body, as originally announced, the so-called formal structure of the provincial government which counts 22 decentralized entities and 22 state-owned enterprises. Hidenesa and Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén SA, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the Under-Secretary for Energy, Mines and Hydrocarbons, are related to the Hydrocarbons sector; the Provincial Directorate of Hydrocarbon Exploration, Exploitation and Transport, the Provincial Directorate of Energy Revenue and the Provincial Directorate of the Energy Economy, the Directorate and a Provincial Infrastructure Fund for new gas and oil projects. On the other hand, related to the provincial development are the Copade, the aforementioned Pyme and Adinqn Center and the Development Program Fund (Foprodes).

A report prepared by Dr. Pablo Guido reveals that annual public spending per capita in 2017 in Neuquén tripled that of provinces such as Mendoza, Córdoba or Río Negro. It is not a translation or evidence that our province has infrastructure and services three times higher. The conclusion that follows is that we are spending too much and too much on the provincial state bureaucracy.

For the cluster to succeed, which is ultimately more of a "network" than a magical body, governments should ensure a stable and predictable business environment, create favorable conditions for the proper functioning of markets, create an enabling environment to innovation, raise awareness of the benefits of knowledge sharing and networking, provide appropriate support and incentives to encourage collaboration between different actors, act as a facilitator or moderator of relationships, provide space for Formal and informal exchange of knowledge, provide strategic information and ensure that (public) institutions develop links with the private sector.

Do not make the sad definition of bureaucracy to be the art of making difficult the easy through the intuitive, but, through existing organizations and organizations in the province of Neuquén, we can shape the so-called Cluster Vaca Muerta

* Lawyer and Undersecretary for Innovation of the Municipality of Neuquén

** Hydraulic Engineer and former Energy Secretary of the Province of Neuquén