The government of Ignacio Torres is about to consummate one of the biggest scams in Chubut’s recent history. This Thursday, July 2, his ruling party deputies — with an automatic majority — will vote to ratify the agreement with YPF that releases the oil company from all its environmental responsibilities in the Gulf of San Jorge Basin. In exchange, the province will receive only $25 million, when the environmental liability accumulated over decades of intensive exploitation could cost more than $400 million.
YPF, which under the government of Javier Milei operates as a private company, withdrew from conventional areas in Chubut and Santa Cruz through the Andes Project, promoted by the president and the CEO of the oil company, Horacio Marín. The objective: to focus on Vaca Muerta. This decision has already caused the loss of at least 5,000 jobs among oil workers, truck drivers, and UOCRA workers in the Gulf of San Jorge Basin. Today, Comodoro Rivadavia is experiencing its third most serious historical crisis, after the privatization of 1992 and the oil crash of 1998.
The agreement, signed last Friday, June 26, includes a clause that the province waives «irrevocably» any present or future claim against YPF for environmental liabilities. The text of the Agreement Act is explicit: «The Province of Chubut releases YPF S.A. from liability for liabilities, findings, issues and environmental situations of the Areas, and declares that it has nothing more to claim from YPF S.A., nor from its directors and shareholders.» This waiver extends to all provincial state bodies, including future governments and legislatures.
To gauge the magnitude of the deal, the environmental liability includes more than 2,000 inactive wells in the Campamento Central area alone, according to ADNSur in 2024. With an estimated cost of $200,000 per well for technical abandonment, the total figure exceeds $400 million. Added to this are wells from other areas such as El Tordillo, La Tapera, Puesto Quiroga, Escalante-El Trébol, and Manantiales Behr, plus the 84 offshore wells at Restinga Alí.
In contrast, the neighboring government of Santa Cruz, also under Milei, signed an agreement with YPF in April 2025 for $335 million that included a concrete environmental remediation program. That pact not only involved the return of areas but also remediation commitments. In Chubut, however, Torres opted for a «clean exit» or divestment without responsibilities, a clean exit for the oil company at the expense of the environment and workers.
The agreement also transfers historical assets in Comodoro Rivadavia to the province, such as clubs and properties, which the government presents as an achievement. However, the titling of those assets was already contemplated in a 1999 agreement. The dispute between the governor, the mayor, and other officials only shows the plunder among patronal parties that allowed looting and contamination.
The PTS and the United Left Front denounce that this scam is part of Torres’s alignment with Milei, and propose the nationalization of the hydrocarbon industry under worker control, with reinstatement of the dismissed and an environmental repair plan with participation from the university and CONICET. Meanwhile, on Thursday a new chapter of corporate impunity will be consummated.
Para mí esto es un choreo monumental. YPF y el gobierno chorro de Torres regalan el ambiente por 25 palos verdes cuando vale 400 millones. Los zurditos lloran pero son los primeros en cagar todo. Me parece una estafa que hipoteca el futuro de Chubut. #LibertadYPetroleo
Para mí esto es una estafa monumental. YPF y Torres nos quieren cagar con 25 palos verdes cuando la deuda real es de 400. Me parece que están vendiendo el futuro de todes, unos vendepatria que se llenan los bolsillos mientras nos dejan el desastre. ¡A las calles, carajo!