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DE RUEHBU #1726/01 2421756
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R 301756Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9095
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UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001726 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
PASS NSC FOR MICHAEL SMART 
PASS FED BOARD OF GOVERNORS FOR PATRICE ROBITAILLE 
PASS USTR FOR KATHERINE DUCKWORTH AND MARY SULLIVAN 
TREASURY FOR ROSELLEN ALBANO 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/OLAC/PEACHER 
US SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG EPET EINV ECON PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: ENERGY SECRETARY CAMERON ON U.S. BUSINESS 
CONCERNS AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN THE CRISTINA ERA 
 
Ref:  (A) Buenos Aires 1680 
 
      (B) Buenos Aires 1593 
       (C) Buenos Aires 1456 
      (D) Buenos Aires 1415 
      (E) Buenos Aires 65 
 
This cable contains business-sensitive information - not for 
internet distribution. 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Energy Secretary Daniel Cameron, a leading candidate to 
replace Planning Minister De Vido in a likely Cristina Kirchner 
administration, told Ambassador the Planning Ministry will be 
re-engineered to better administer its Energy, Transportation, 
Communications, Mining and Public Works responsibilities.  He denied 
the GoA is taking a "statist" approach to energy infrastructure 
development, notwithstanding recent announcements of over US$ 10 
billion in new GoA-funded hydro, thermal and nuclear power 
generation projects.  He praised the IDB's energy project 
flexibility but faulted the World Bank for being unnecessarily rigid 
in its approach to Argentina, citing Argentina's 2006 decision to 
pre-pay a World Bank loan for the controversial Argentine/Paraguayan 
Yacyreta hydroelectric facility.  Cameron hoped that newly arrived 
World Bank country manager Pedro Alba will help smooth the bilateral 
relationship.  He expressed concern over the large number of ICSID 
arbitration cases filed by international energy companies that are 
still pending resolution. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On specific U.S. upstream player (Occidental, Apache) 
concerns about negotiations with provinces to renew exploration 
concessions that will expire in 2016, Cameron argued that 
hydrocarbon exploration and development capital investments 
generally pay out in 3-5 years and that hydrocarbon multinationals 
have a "social obligation" to continue high rates of investment in 
Argentina.  On concerns by U.S. electricity generators AES and Duke 
about arrears in GoA wholesale electricity payments, he admitted 
that GoA accounts had been "strained" by the July energy crunch (Ref 
D) and said he is working to regularize payments.  Finally, Cameron 
said that, should Cristina Kirchner win upcoming presidential 
elections, she would "open the way" for new initiatives to 
rationalize growing Argentine economic distortions.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Re-Engineering the Planning Ministry 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) In an August 24 meeting with GoA Planning Ministry Energy 
Secretary Daniel Cameron, Ambassador presented Energy Secretary 
 
SIPDIS 
Bodman's invitation to Cameron to attend a September 16 meeting in 
Vienna of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (Ref A).  Ambassador 
noted to Cameron that, with six major U.S. energy firms currently 
operating in Argentina (Apache, Chevron, Occidental, Esso, AES and 
Duke), our Embassy follows developments in this sector closely. 
Cameron replied that the GoA is implementing a coordinated energy 
master plan to expand hydrocarbon exploration and development in 
Argentina and to bring needed new hydro, thermal and nuclear 
electricity generation resources on line. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Current "strains" on the domestic energy network, Cameron 
said, should be "stabilized" by 2009 as planned new capacity is 
added, Cameron said (Refs C, D).  He agreed that the GoA needs to 
work on "better institutionalization" of primary energy 
infrastructure, since current Planning Ministry initiatives to 
finance new energy capacity have "many virtues but some problems." 
The Planning Ministry will be "re-engineered" to facilitate its role 
in managing 18-19% of Argentina's GDP, he said.  (The Planning 
Ministry has responsibility for Energy, Communications, 
Transportation, Mining and Public Works.  Cameron has been widely 
mooted for promotion to the Planning Minister position in a likely 
Cristina Kirchner administration.) 
 
------------------- 
Relations with MDBs 
------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Notwithstanding recent GoA announcements of over US$ 10 
billion in new GoA-funded hydro, thermal and nuclear generation and 
gas and electricity distribution projects, Cameron denied that the 
GoA is taking a "statist" approach to energy infrastructure 
development.  All recent GoA investment initiatives have been 
reviewed with the private sector, he said.  The GoA is also in 
discussions with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on new 
energy infrastructure project development, above and beyond the 
IDB's US$ 580 million commitment earlier in 2007 to fund the Norte 
Grande electricity transmission program. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Cameron praised the IDB's project-oriented flexibility and 
noted their early support for developing a planning function in the 
GoA's Energy Secretariat.  But he faulted the World Bank for being 
unnecessarily rigid in its approach to Argentina.  He cited in 
particular the multi-billion Yacyreta hydroelectric facility on the 
Parana River along the border between Argentina and Paraguay which 
the Bank has been funding since 1992.  (In September 2006, Argentina 
pre-paid the US$ 106 million balance due on the World Bank's second 
Yacyreta project loan to overcome longstanding World Bank objections 
to the project's non-compliance with environmental and relocation 
conditionality.)  The World Bank needs to bring "new air" to its 
relationship with Argentina, Cameron concluded, and he hoped that 
the arrival of new World Bank country manager Pedro Alba would help 
smooth the bilateral relationship. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Finally, Cameron expressed concern over the large number of 
International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes 
(ICSID) arbitration cases filed by multinational energy companies 
that are still pending resolution.  It would be helpful, he said, if 
these cases could somehow be combined into a single class-action to 
limit the time and expense the GoA is devoting to their legal 
resolution.  (There are billions in outstanding arbitral claims 
against the GoA by foreign investors (Ref E), the value of whose 
Argentine assets were dramatically reduced by unilateral emergency 
measures adopted by the GoA in the aftermath of the 2001/2 economic 
crisis.  As a consequence, Argentina holds the largest single number 
of outstanding arbitration cases pending at the World Bank's 
ICSID.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
Hydrocarbon Concession Renewals:  A Provincial Play 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) In a separate meeting with EconCouns August 23, Cameron 
reviewed specific U.S. energy company concerns.  U.S. upstream 
players Occidental (with operations concentrated in Santa Cruz 
province) and Apache Energy (with the bulk of its new investment in 
southernmost Tierra del Fuego province) remain eager to move forward 
on concession renewal negotiations with provincial authorities. 
Although current concessions originally granted in the early 1990s 
run through 2015-2016, Occidental and Apache argue that they need 
longer term certainty in order to better plan and justify to U.S. 
Boards of Directors new capital investment in Argentine exploration 
and development. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Cameron replied that Occidental's negotiations in Santa 
Cruz will likely follow concession terms currently being negotiated 
with provincial officials by UK/Argentine joint venture Pan American 
Energy: Pan American had recently concluded a concession contract in 
bordering Chubut province with Governor Mario Das Nevas that Cameron 
believes should serve as a national model.  He called delays in Pan 
American and Occidental's Santa Cruz province concession 
negotiations the consequence of "political sensitivity" there 
following ongoing teacher and oil field work strikes in the 
province.  He urged Apache Energy to help educate the newly elected 
governor of Tierra del Fuego province on "world-class" concession 
accords.  (Provinces have been granted considerable autonomy in 
managing their hydrocarbon and mineral wealth under the GoA's 
recently implemented natural resource law.) 
 
¶10. (SBU) Cameron argued that hydrocarbon exploration and 
development capital investments generally pay out in 3-5 years and 
that hydrocarbon players have a "social obligation" to continue high 
rates of investment in Argentina.  He appreciated that Occidental 
and Apache are putting considerable effort and new money into the 
ground. Others, he said, including Spanish-owned YPF Repsol, are 
not. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Arrears to Electricity Generators 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Cameron confirmed that payment by the GoA-regulated 
wholesale electricity CAMMESA of December 2006 arrears due to 
generators, including U.S. companies AES and Duke, would be made 
shortly.  This leaves CAMMESA roughly six months behind on payments. 
 Cameron said CAMMESA accounts were "strained" during the July 
energy crunch given the GoA's need to purchase significant "topping" 
electricity from Brazil and to purchase fuel-oil from abroad to 
provide generators needed supplies (Ref C, D).  The GoA, he said, is 
working to "regularize" CAMMESA's finances to see generators made 
whole. 
 
------------------ 
Christina Kirchner 
------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) Cameron noted Cristina Kirchner's upcoming September 24-27 
visit to New York City, where she will be the guest of honor at a 
Council of the Americas lunch.  He asked EconCouns what the USG 
thought of Cristina's August 7 Council of the Americas seminar 
presentation in Buenos Aires (Ref B).  Cameron said that Cristina 
will "change" some things and "open the way" on other new 
initiatives to rationalize growing distortions in Argentina's 
economy.  He declined to answer when EconCouns asked if such changes 
could include adjustments in public utility tariffs that most energy 
players in Argentina argue are needed to attract new private 
investment in the sector. 
WAYNE