"We are staying in Argentina because of the potential that the business has here. But as long as the government keeps tariffs frozen, that potential will remain underground because it will not be profitable to invest in extracting it". This phrase belongs to a businessman in the hydrocarbons sector whom I interviewed a few months after Eduardo Duhalde's government decided to fix the tariffs for public services in January 2002. A decade has passed, and now it is Cristina Kirchner who presides over the country, but this phrase has not lost any of its topicality.

The freezing for a decade of Argentine gas and oil tariffs, and no other, is the reason why the energy companies operating in this country, including YPF, have limited their investments to those essential to maintain their operations, without increasing their production capacity despite the growing demand, a demand that is growing because the artificially low prices have caused the population to abandon other energy sources. Just to mention one example of this, Argentina is the country in the world where more cars run on natural gas, representing 20% of its vehicle fleet.

To continue with the automotive sector, and with the Peronist measures, firms such as Porsche, BMW and Hyundai have been forced by the government to buy rice, peanuts, soybean flour, olive oil, olives or wine, among other local products, as the only way to guarantee their business in this country. This "barter" system, implemented by Cristina K's government to alleviate its trade deficit, has caused diplomatic complaints from Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, the United States, Mexico, the European Union and has been the subject of a complaint filed by 40 countries at the World Trade Organization.

The policy of tariff stifling has caused many transnationals to leave Argentina, selling their shares to local companies. This Argentineization of the industry was one of the objectives of the Kirchnerist management . But another consequence, completely undesired, has been that one of the countries with the largest hydrocarbon reserves is living the paradox of being incapable of self-sufficiency, being forced to import gas. According to Cristina Kirchner "after 17 years, the policy implemented since (YPF) was denationalized for the first time turned us into net importers of gas and crude oil, with a deficit of 3,029 million dollars" in the fuel trade balance.

YPF, which until now has been the largest contributor to the Argentine treasury and one of the main employers, with a workforce of 13,500 workers and thousands of indirect jobs, has been pointed out for months by the Argentine government as manager of the energy crisis. That is why the announced nationalization of 51% of its property, which is in the hands of the Spanish Repsol, is not really surprising, although the Spanish government does seem surprised as it has not reacted with the speed and forcefulness required by status, especially taking into account that President Fernandez de Kirchner herself has warned that she is targeting other companies in this country: "the telephone companies, some of them are Spanish and subjected us to a blackout recently and I hope that the ministry will soon act accordingly", she said. "Also foreign banks", he added, "in short, we do not have problems with profitability, but we do have problems for them to reinvest in the country to continue accompanying the growth of the country".

The reaction of Repsol, which has already informed that it will sue Buenos Aires before the World Bank for the expropriation, has been somewhat swifter. These lawsuits are settled through the International Center for Investment Disputes (ICSID), where other Spanish companies present in Argentina, such as Telefónica, Endesa, Gas Natural and Aguas de Barcelona, have already taken their complaints in the past.

It is not really surprising that this conflict worsened after the finding last year by YPF of Vaca Muerta, a gigantic training of unconventional hydrocarbons that Repsol described as the biggest finding of its history, capable by itself of bringing Argentina out of its energy crisis and becoming its salvation. Or its ruin.