Offshore oil exploration in Argentina. A socio-environmental conflict with implications for environmental sustainability

The Argentine national government granted hydrocarbon exploration permits in different areas of the Argentine sea at the end of 2021 in favor of the Equinor company. While the approval process advanced, the environmental group Greenpeace warned about the implicit risks. However, the definitive approval of the project was necessary for a social and political conflict to break out.

After publishing the Decree that gave definitive approval to seismic explorations for the search for offshore oil, Greenpeace launched a strong campaign on social networks that reached the main national media. This generated, in turn, a rapid diffusion in civil society, especially in the community of the city of Mar del Plata.

From that moment on, the demonstrations against the project multiplied throughout the year 2022. Greenpeace continued to carry out many protest actions, but the local community also organized itself to protest through two major actions: the creation of the Assembly by a sea free of oil companies and the “Atlanticazos”, a name given to the mobilizations that began on January 4 and have been carried out every day on the 4th of each month since then.

Among all the protest actions that took place in these months, that of December 31, 2021 stands out, when different environmental and ecologist organizations moved 25 kilometers from Mar del Plata to the official residence of Chapadmalal, where the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, was resting; and the first "Atlanticazo" that called for a massive mobilization in all the coastal towns of the province of Buenos Aires to reject the project. The call was so successful that marches were organized in 22 cities (Image 1).

The debate with the arguments for and against the project spread to academic circles, business chambers, unions and politics. In fact, the national government saw the need to make public statements, in addition to starting a campaign to spread the arguments in favor of the project on social networks.

Those who oppose the project do so because of the environmental impacts that a potential spill could have on tourism and fishing, because of the effects of seismic exploration on marine fauna, because of the overlapping of exploration/exploitation tasks with areas of importance for potential marine protected areas, due to irregularities in the citizen participation process and due to flaws and shortcomings in the Environmental Impact Assessment.

Those who support it minimize the risks and argue that it is a development opportunity for the country that can generate public revenues of US$32.9 billion and around 220,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The debate became so heated that the issue reached legal instances. In February, more than ten environmental groups, supported by the local community and by the mayor of the town of Mar del Plata, presented an application for amparo to stop the project, which received a favorable ruling in the first instance that suspended the start of the tasks. The national government together with the oil companies appealed the measure and a few days later another court annulled the first instance ruling. On June 3, 2022, the decision of the Court of Appeals that lifted the suspension of the project was known, but the judges demanded that the government present a new environmental impact statement that considers a series of points necessary to establish the cumulative impacts. In addition, they indicated to the government that participatory interventions organized at the municipal and national levels should be valued.

The ruling of the Court of Appeals did not provide the conflict with a definitive resolution. Meanwhile, the public debate continues within the framework of a discussion that is global and where environmental sustainability is at stake. The processes of expansion of production frontiers have increasingly focused on the oceans and many countries see the oceans as an opportunity for development and seek to impose a discourse on how beneficial blue growth can be. However, recent scientific evidence warns that rapid and uncontrolled development of the oceans can cause many problems and risks for the environment and for communities and in the case of offshore oil exploitation it is suggested that the environmental impacts are high, that coastal communities bear much of the costs and are often left out of the benefits.

The national government seems determined to move forward with this project and others that are under study. But the reaction of the local community showed the government that it should try to improve and be willing to modify the project, and this was ratified by justice. And above all, it showed that to advance with projects of this magnitude that can commit important resources for the country, light and merely consultative participation processes and superficial environmental impact assessments that lack the necessary depth are not enough.

¹Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Centro de Investigaciones Geográficas Socioambientales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina and CEESP member