By Sylvia Colombo 

The new bill that would allow the exploitation of vast oilfields will be, ecologists are certain, the nail in Argentina’s coffin. “We are facing the pinnacle of extractivism, the final adjustment of the screw so that Argentina is no longer a sovereign country over its territory,” says lawyer Enrique Viale.

The law being debated by Argentina’s national congress is designed to attract billions of dollars of investment into the oil and gas industry. Viale is president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, one of 50 civil society organisations opposing the bill.

Ernesto López Anadón also has his eyes fixed on the legislation’s progress. As head of the Instituto Argentino de Petróleo y Gas (IAPG), a thinktank that conducts research and analysis in the energy sector, he has an interest in what lies ahead for the country’s oil and gas ambitions.

The bill would benefit the oil and gas industry and lithium extraction, leaving behind any serious energy transition ambitions and send the country headfirst into the Latin American oil rush.