Vaca Muerta: the judicial echo of a three-headed business

Neuquén

and

Dead cow

They can not be more united. Under the ground, millionaire oil reserves; above, the struggle for the distribution of the millions that produce these resources. Technology, investment, misery, ambition and corruption go hand in hand. And of course, it depends on who will lead the most strategic province of all for the next few years, one or the other will be imposed.

Neuquén has two heads. There are two great powers that manage the province. On the one hand, politics; on the other, the oil companies. Between the two, almost like a knot of power installed, there is another: the unions.

For years, a wide range of commercial activities and cross-border interests have consolidated on the margins of oil wells. Both are familiar with the methodology and the cost overruns generated by this way of doing business. There was a productivity agreement when

Juan José Aranguren

He was Minister of Energy to reduce these costs. But there was no case, in the long run the companies always complain about the operating costs in the basin. But oil pays for everything.

Neuquén is another world. There the investment flourishes. The business and negotiated relationship between the tripod that makes up the public sector, the private sector and the unions is reinforced as in a few places. Everyone knows each other And as if this triangle was missing, national support appears with measures that give more and more money to workers in the oil sector. Enterprises, incentives and subsidies to production. It is not for less that, in a few years, the investment through Vaca Muerta could become another dollar plant of the Argentine economy, which the sector has been doing for many years.

Neuquén is so different from the rest of Argentina that investment does not only have its advantages. Petroleum employees do not pay income tax on the vast majority of payroll items. This privilege, which began at the time of the

Cristina Kirchner

and that this administration could not delete, means a huge amount of money that is not collected.

When this year's draft budget was lifted, there had been an attempt to eliminate the exemption from income tax on items such as travel expenses, payments of food and hours of travel, among others. A large part of the wages of the oil are liquidated there. But the tankers frowned and the initiative was emptied. Again, the electric tripod worked. The unions fought, the provincial government supports them because it is less money for consumption, collection and trade and oil companies accompanied. Finally, a large part of the salary of its employees is paid by the rest of the company with its taxes. The conglomerate of power that has implanted itself in several Buenos Aires glbad towers offices has so many powers: many industry leaders use this exemption for not paying income tax and their salaries are similar to those of other industries.

Local governments are responsible for monitoring this perfect tripod. The companies that dump the activity have made millionaires hierarchies of the system. The leaders of the Movimiento Popular Neuquino (MPN), a kind of Argentine PRI, for the party that has ruled Mexico for decades, love politics but especially business.

The beginning of the modern oil era in Neuquén could be in 2008, when the abbreviated law began to be pbaded, a rule that gave the provinces the power to negotiate concession contracts for oil areas. Neuquén made his point about Panamerican Energy (PAE), the company of the Bulgheroni brothers. There was an agreement and the company renegotiated its concession rights for decades. At that time, the governor

Jorge Sapag

, thriving with the companies of the oil companies and theirs.

It was a fact that was decisive for the number one local politics is not present as a candidate and is dedicated solely to managing the sons of the province of the house. When negotiating contracts with companies, an attempt was made to deposit $ 5 million with the Andorran private bank. He made his energy minister, Guillermo Coco. Although these banks are not characterized by rigidity in the search for the origin of the funds, the deposit was rejected. The information has never been known until the Spanish newspaper El País publishes a series of notes dealing with money laundering and corruption in this bank. According to the Madrid newspaper, the deposit was not accepted because "the funds correspond to commissions and royalties arising from the renegotiation of concessions granted periodically to companies recognized for the exploitation of oil in the region". Few things as frustrating in the financial world as denying a deposit in a tax haven. A Sapag and Coco arrived.

The investigation was known last year and since then, the head of the province has chosen not to appear for fear of finding this shadow. Today, the Bank of Andorra is mentioned in several pbadages of the notebooks as one of the places where money has been triangulated to pay for properties bought by the secretary Daniel Muñoz at the 39; abroad.

Businesses flourished in Neuquén as contracts were renegotiated. So much so that Sapag's bimonthly visits to the Federal Ministry of Planning, which always came through the car park and went directly to the main offices, created the need to buy a plane. The governor replaced a helicopter from the provincial fleet with a jet plane piloted by the governor of Salta. Deal makes and fly more comfortable. Since then, trips to Buenos Aires have become so frequent that the head of the MPN, in order not to leave too much footprints, has stopped in town in his mother's apartment.

At the pace of the renegotiations, they became in Neuquén great hosts of the distribution of Kirchner who is now imprisoned. José López, famous for the revolt of the handbags, was a regular of the evenings. He also went by private plane to make the transfer more comfortable.

The statements of several people repenting to the cause of the notebooks have already posed the investigation in the so-called Northern Patagonia. The men of southern Patagonia, who took power under the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, created companies at the forefront of oil. Autopfarma, a chain of pharmacies in Santa Cruz, was in the middle of the investigation because the expansion had been carried out thanks to the injection of money Muñoz had placed him. . In the Neuquén area, Justice is looking closely at another chain that had a similar expansion and started operations in 2010. It is now an economic empire.

Kirchner accountant Víctor Manzanares has already reported a Muñoz company in this region. It's a matter of time before the skein of Nepali business and negotiators starts to crumble.