Río Negro has prevailed over the province of Buenos Aires in the dispute over the location of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant of YPF and Petronas. Finally, the directors of the state-owned company revealed that the investment of some 30 billion dollars will be made in the port of Punta Colorada in the Río Negro town of Sierra Grande, a place that still suffers the consequences of the neoliberal government of former president Carlos Saúl Menem.
The Punta Colorada port is located a few kilometers from Playas Doradas, in Sierra Grande, the last town on the Costa San Matías, before Chubut. It is also located about 560 kilometers from Bahía Blanca, a city in Buenos Aires that bid to obtain the LNG plant from the national and Malaysian oil companies.
According to local media, the project will be used to upgrade and modernise an old, disused port with access to the Atlantic Ocean. The mega project proposes installing the plant there from 2031.
The port terminal was opened in 1977 by the company Hierro Patagónico de Sierra Grande Sociedad Anónima Minera. For many years, the largest underground iron mine in South America was operated there, providing work for numerous residents. However, in 1992, the mine was closed by decree of the then president of La Rioja, as part of his state-run policies to dismantle the mine. This decision caused a sharp rise in unemployment in Sierra Grande.
Mining extraction had a second chance in 2006 with the arrival of Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), which took over the mine with a 99-year concession. But in 2016 the company came to a standstill because costs exceeded profits, according to Diario Río Negro.
Punta Colorada is located a few kilometers from the town of Sierra Grande, in Río Negro. (Image: screenshot Maps)
According to the latest data recorded in a 2010 national census, only four people live in Punta Colorada. The statistics show a population decline of 66.6%, considering the 12 people who lived there in 2001. This is a place that is visited by tourists who travel to Playas Doradas.
During a press conference held days before, the governor of Rio Negro, Alberto Weretilneck, highlighted the “legal, economic, and political” commitment of the province in the strategic sector, especially based on regulations such as Provincial Law 5727 on adherence to the Regime of Incentives for Large Investments (RIGI), among others,
According to the governor of Río Negro, the Gulf and the Punta Colorada area have distinctive conditions for the installation due to their “deep water position” due to their “relative location and natural depths, greater than 40 meters.”
