Córdoba rejects, but oil companies support

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The Province insisted on Tuesday, through one of the main swords of the Cordoban ruling party in Congress, that it will not support the deregulation of the biofuels market, although the oil companies are beginning to align forces to hold that discussion and support the Government’s intention. national.

To the meeting led on Monday by Governor Martín Llaryora to defend the position, added to the presence of two ministers in another analysis meeting called by the Ministry of the Interior, was added the advance of the national deputy Carlos Gutiérrez against the deregulatory measure .

Gutiérrez is part of the We Make Federal Coalition bloc, which has 23 members, and flatly rejected deregulation, even with expressions that sowed suspicion about the motives of the initiative: he spoke of an oil “lobby.”

He considered that with “lightness” the official project “attacks years of investments that were made under the protection of a law that established conditions for many of these plants to be installed.”

“That the oil lobby tries to influence the biofuels market is not going to have our support,” highlighted the man from Rio Cuarto. Precisely, in that department two of the main companies that produce bioethanol are in operation: Bio4 and Promaíz.

Deregulation maintains the cuts of 12% of bioethanol for gasoline and 7.5% for diesel, but it would remove the State from the role of regulator, especially in the allocation of quotas and in the price that oil companies must pay to agribusiness for products.

The deputy considered that this issue is not among the “priority issues” that the Milei government needs to approve to face the crisis. “We are willing to discuss, but with a bill that comes with all the consultations and levels of participation that it should have,” he endorsed.

The law created in 2007 to promote biofuels expired on May 12, 2021 and was simply extended by decree No. 456/2021 until August 27 of that year, with the signature of former president Alberto Fernández. A regulatory framework was then developed by law that effectively extended it until December 31, 2030.

According to sources from the oil industry, the objective of deregulation is not to shorten the cut percentage, something that was already ruled out by the head of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, in a meeting with the ministers of Bioagroindustry, Sergio Busso, and his counterpart. of Production, Pedro Dellarossa, but for going to a direct negotiation between the parties for quotas and prices.

Total war

In this sense, the oil companies are preparing the documentation to take their position to Congress (it is not yet defined through which sectoral entity), in which they mention that in the last four years the price of biodiesel increased by 1,803% and that of bioethanol of corn -which Córdoba produces-, 1,315%. On the other hand, diesel rose 851% and gasoline rose 741% in the same period.

There are also strong discrepancies with the issue of quotas because they consider that there is discretion in their management. Among this information, which La Voz accessed, the quota assigned to each company is mentioned. In the case of Córdoba, Bio4 of Río Cuarto is the creditor of 10.5% of the volume assigned every month by the Ministry of Energy, which makes it the third company (out of 18) most chosen by the Government. “There are 10,500 cubic meters that the oil companies had to buy from him,” the paper states.

The main supplier of bioethanol in Córdoba is ACA Bio Cooperativa, which in December was assigned 24,500 cubic meters, followed by Promaíz SA, with 16,700 cubic meters. “Between the three of them, in December, they verified revenues of $23,983 million, that is, we are not talking about an ecological or promotional issue, but about a good business,” stated the interlocutor.

For Víctor Bronstein, former director of the state company Enarsa, the functioning of biofuels in the world “depends on public policies,” but “the idea of ​​deregulating” the relationship between producers and oil companies seems “good” to him, he told this medium.

“The two parties are somewhat right in the discussion,” he acknowledged, and noted that a new operating framework “should not be done urgently.” Bronstein considered that cutting biofuels “makes the price of gasoline and diesel more expensive,” but deregulating “would improve the functionality of the system,” he added.

Currently, oil refiners are prohibited from entering the market with their own production of biofuels to leave that space for SMEs, another point of strong friction.