LatAmOil: Argentina mulls oil price controls

Argentina’s government is looking to establish long-time price controls for the domestic oil market, according to Production Minister Matias Kulfas. The administration of President Alberto Fernandez had included provisions for setting a floor and ceiling for domestic oil prices into draft legislation designed to attract more investment into the hydrocarbon sectors, Kulfas told Bloomberg in an interview last week.

According to the minister, the Fernandez administration sees price controls as a means of protecting Argentina from fluctuations on global crude oil markets. With a price ceiling in place, rising oil prices will not cause domestic petroleum product prices to surge, thereby imposing burdens on consumers, he explained. By the same token, establishing a price floor should make investors less inclined to leave the country if world crude prices fall, he said.

Bloomberg noted that the presidential administration was still working on the bill. Fernandez’s team aims to submit the draft legislation to the National Congress later this year, the news agency said.