Fracking

Clemente Cancela

They taught us one way of doing business, but we did it in a completely different way. They told us that oil and mining guaranteed development, but they didn't mention that they were destroying our planet. They showed us a polluting and nefarious textile industry, but we found ethical alternatives for the environment and the people involved. What was supposedly normal never represented us, and neither did our interviewees. That's why we invite you to be part of Atípico, a podcast that champions the causes that matter and that resonates with our identity.

Enrique Viale

These are just twists and turns the economic system uses to keep exploiting something that has already reached its limit.

Clemente Cancela

Over the years, oil and gas extraction has been a key element in the growth, development, and technological evolution of countries, without question. So much so that oil has come to dominate almost every aspect of our lives, as fuel for cars, for producing plastic objects, for electricity in our homes and factories, and it can even be found in the fertilizer for the soil where our food grows. But this drive to satisfy mass consumption and supposed economic growth has always had a downside. It involves the advancement of extraction techniques that are detrimental to the soil and nature, and, to make matters worse, use enormous quantities of water. This is the case with fracking, used for the extraction of unconventional gas. According to a report by the Energy Contacts Foundation, in Vaca Muerta, Neuquén, 12,522 fracking stages were recorded during 2022. These wells require between 2 and 30 million liters of water. This presents us with a dilemma: What is the limit to the resources these practices require to achieve supposed economic development? Have the medium- and long-term consequences of these practices ever been considered, not only for our soil but also for those who inhabit it? Today, these questions resonate ever more loudly thanks to thousands of voices rising up to defend our planet. And that's what we'll be discussing today with Enrique Viale, a lawyer, environmentalist, consultant, and specialist in environmental policy and legislation: what fracking is, what the use of this technique entails, and why it's so important to raise awareness about its use.

Well, Enrique, thank you for sitting down to chat now about fracking, which is a word that's been mentioned quite a bit, debated extensively, and I get the feeling that not everyone fully understands it. Therefore, I want to ask you the simplest question I can: what is fracking?

Enrique Viale

Fracking is obviously an English word, which means, or could be translated as, hydraulic fracturing. It's not a literal translation, though; in Spanish it's called "fractura eléctrica," while in English it's "fractura humana." It's a new technique. Actually, it was used a long time ago, but it only became widespread very recently, for the exploitation of what are called unconventional hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons (mainly gas and oil) were in conventional reservoirs—or rather, were, because we as humanity have practically exhausted them. A conventional reservoir was a large well, like the one Saudi Arabia has, and we also had one in Patagonia, which is drilled, and somehow, through the pressure itself—obviously with a complex system, but through the pressure itself—humans extracted either the gas or the oil. That, I insist, as I just said, we as humanity have practically exhausted them worldwide, in this mad race for infinite growth, as if we could burn fossil fuels in the context of global climate change without stopping. And so, to maintain that illusion, we found that with this technique we can exploit unconventional hydrocarbons, which are not only in a conventional reservoir, that is, a large well, but also, as if in a giant pumice rock, pumice rock, pumice rock, that is, in sealed compartments, not connected to each other, like an enormous rock containing oil and gas, depending on the location, but they are not interconnected. So you drill and extract very little because you only extract from that one compartment. So what the technique does is: you drill in with great force, which is why you fracture the rock, using a lot of water and chemicals, and in that fracture you connect these sealed compartments and in that way you extract the hydrocarbons. It is a highly controversial technique worldwide, very controversial. It is prohibited by national laws in Germany, France, Bulgaria, and several states in the United States. In other states in the United States, it is used. It is a technique that is very, very controversial.

Clemente Cancela

Why is it being questioned? Why is it banned in these countries that we often look to when we want to compare ourselves and ask why we aren't like them? Why is it banned in those countries?

Enrique Viale

Well, because of the socio-environmental consequences, right? And there are several. One: in the fracking process, which you do at great depths, well, you cross aquifers, you contaminate waterways. In other words, what we call extreme energy, right? Like offshore drilling. These are just twists and turns the economic system uses to keep exploiting something that's already reached its limit, because as humanity we're like kids trying to drink the last bit of juice through a straw, we're stuck in that situation.

Clemente Cancela

We are sucking on an orange peel.

Enrique Viale

Exactly. The last thing is, fracking is just that—fracking is prohibited, for example, in England, because, among other things, it induces earthquakes. And in Argentina, there's a town called Sauzal Bonito, where the official seismic service—not the environmental movement—has detected that since fracking began in Vaca Muerta, earthquakes have started occurring, actually, in a place that wasn't seismic before, obviously of low intensity. They aren't major earthquakes, but they are low-intensity tremors that cause houses to collapse in a low-lying town, some of which are built of mud. In England, one of the main arguments for the ban was the earthquake-inducing effect of fracking, but it's not the only one. I wish it were. In France, by the way, we have French oil companies doing fracking in Vaca Muerta.

Clemente Cancela

I mean, it's already banned there, but it comes here.

Enrique Viale

They come here and do it. For example, the oil company Total, which is very well-known, is fracking in Vaca Muerta, and it's prohibited in their country. I remember when it was banned; it was based on the precautionary principle, meaning there's no scientific certainty. That's what the French government said, not the French environmental movement. The French government said there's no scientific certainty that this won't cause serious pollution, so we banned it. The precautionary principle says that: when there's no scientific certainty, the precautionary principle is triggered. Incidentally, in Argentina, the precautionary principle is applied in reverse. In the absence of scientific certainty, we proceed. Like when glyphosate was authorized for offshore drilling in Vaca Muerta.

Clemente Cancela

And if something happens afterwards, we say it was for another reason.

Enrique Viale

For some other reason, or perhaps just bad luck, someone made a mistake. There's always a worker there to be sacrificed, always. That's what happened with the mine spills. There's always some poor worker to be sacrificed.

Clemente Cancela

So, excuse me for stopping you there, the environmental consequences are indeed socio-environmental.

Enrique Viale

Absolutely.

Clemente Cancela

Because there is always someone who pays for it: a community, a city, and generally speaking, those who pay for it are always those who have the least.

Enrique Viale

In cases of pollution, the most vulnerable sectors are always the ones most affected, because they also have no way to cope. If you're a wealthy person, you can move away, I don't know, but if you're penniless and live next to a polluted stream, you're going to live there your whole life. That's why it's so unfair. We talk about environmental discrimination, how environmental degradation exacerbates inequalities. We always link them together, and that's key, key for the environmental movement as well. Understanding that the environment can't be seen as isolated compartments, but rather must be seen in conjunction with the social context. The fracturing, each fracture, each fracturing process—I mean, when you do what I just mentioned about breaking the rock with a lot of water—well, it takes between 40 and 60 million liters of water. An area like Neuquén, for example, in Argentina, where they tell you, well, but only 1% is chemical, because it needs a lot of chemicals to prevent it from pooling again. One percent of 60 million liters is a lot. That's 600,000 liters of chemicals that you inject and put pressure on the ground. You put pressure on aquifers, everything. Then what's called flowback, or return fluid, comes back, and there's no solution. It's 60 million liters, most of which stays underground. And do you know what they're doing with that, for example? There's no solution, the treatment is extremely expensive, and besides, there aren't enough resources for everyone… Imagine they're drilling wells everywhere, all the time, injecting them into what are called reservoir wells, which are old, abandoned oil wells, and they inject that return fluid there without any kind of membrane, nothing, just hoping it stays there, that it doesn't seep out. So, everywhere fracking has taken place, there's always contamination, obviously with the water. Not only because of the water demand—they take it from lakes, rivers, and so on—but also because of the pollution itself. And there's something about fracking that's impossible to fix, the unseen side of things, the waste it generates. On the one hand, there's flowback, the fluid that returns to the ground, and then there's what's called cuttings, which is what you cut from the earth after all that chemical soup you extract to drill the wells. It's tons and tons of highly contaminated soil, and do you know what it becomes? Mountains of super-toxic waste that end up in different places. Right now, for example, in Argentina, in Patagonia. There are mountains of it. We've traveled there countless times, and these are mountains, tens of meters high, covering hectares upon hectares, almost the size of a Buenos Aires neighborhood, I mean, with mounds 20 or 30 meters high, piling up and piling up, filled with mud containing the most dangerous and toxic waste you can imagine. And nobody talks about that, and it's going to be a liability we'll have to deal with for hundreds of years.

Clemente Cancela

Okay, let's talk about Vaca Muerta, Enrique, because in Argentina it's an emblem, not just Vaca Muerta itself, but the debate surrounding it. And within this debate is the question of whether it will create jobs, whether it will save us—at least that's the prevailing narrative. I want to ask you about that, especially given what you've been telling and explaining.

Enrique Viale

Well, in Latin America, this is something we call the "El Dorado effect." El Dorado was that city, during the time of the conquest, overflowing with riches, where the roof was made of gold, the floor was made of gold, whoever found it would be saved. And in reality, El Dorado didn't exist, but it served as a fable or a myth for the arrival of conquistadors who sought salvation through it. It became so ingrained in the Latin American imagination that even an airport is named after it, the one in Bogotá. It's no coincidence that it's called El Dorado, as if to say, "Come, the gateway." And that founding myth of the latter part of Latin America, since the conquest, has remained deeply ingrained in the Latin American imagination—that sudden, almost magical discovery that will save you. And governments and large economic groups play a big role in that, right? Vaca Muerta is going to save us. And that's what Maristella Svampa and I call a fracking consensus. A consensus, really, of the powerful elite. Nobody can argue with Vaca Muerta, you see? Anyone who argues with Vaca Muerta is against development.

Clemente Cancela

Against Argentina.

Enrique Viale

Against Argentina. You're anti-Argentine, it's going to save us. And the truth is, Vaca Muerta has been in operation for ten years, and we have very serious economic problems, more than half of our children live below the poverty line, we still have energy problems, and the dollars aren't coming in. Because that's the other promise: we need the dollars from Vaca Muerta. That's very important. Breaking those consensuses is very difficult, the fracking consensus. Very, very difficult because it's so deeply entrenched. These consensuses, in quotes, have no rational explanation. So, when you talk to someone, no, no, how can you argue about Vaca Muerta? No, yes, we'll be more environmentally conscious, but Vaca Muerta is indisputable if it's going to save us. And the truth is, time passes, and Vaca Muerta, like at another time, is something else; they're creations, they become ghosts that are never captured. At some point, they'll be forgotten, and a new one will come along. Now we're transitioning to another new gold mine, which is lithium. Have you noticed that lithium is the new trend? Lithium is going to save us. The lithium triangle… Look how they're shifting us away, and Vaca Muerta is getting left behind, and a while ago it was Loma de la Lata, and in Colombia it was the mining powerhouse, and everywhere you look you find a gold mine.

Clemente Cancela

But did Vaca Muerta generate dollars and jobs, for example, which are those promises that were supposedly going to bring…?

Enrique Viale

It generated far less than they claimed. I mean, what am I saying? It hasn't saved Argentina at all. Oil exploitation, through fracking, hydraulic fracturing, has a preferential tax and financial regime. Much more advantageous, because supposedly it carries more risks. It was the famous YPF-Chevron agreement, remember? We were in the streets of Neuquén. I mean, these kinds of things are always approved like this, with 12 hours of repression. I was in… Look, I've been to marches, I'd never seen 12 hours of nonstop repression, I don't know how they had so many rubber bullets, 12 hours. We were going from police station to police station. The YPF-Chevron agreement was something that was kept secret, and later it was discovered that they had requested all kinds of tax exemptions, like lower royalties, I mean, lower royalties than conventional oil exploitation, and free access to foreign currency. If the dollars aren't even entering the country—a large portion of them, not all, but a very high percentage of the foreign currency—then everything that was promised won't be fulfilled. Yes, of course, the new wells create jobs, but only in the very short term, like fossil fuels. Argentina, especially its oil-producing regions, needs to figure out how it will manage its post-fossil fuel economy. The world is moving towards a post-fossil fuel world, and that needs to be achieved through a just energy transition.

Clemente Cancela

Yes, what I want to ask you, Enrique, is why isn't everything you're telling me known? Why is it so widely accepted that Vaca Muerta will save the entire country, while on the other hand, we don't know that there are countries where it's prohibited, and yet they come here to exploit it? Why are we unaware of all these disastrous consequences for our planet, while we embrace the other slogan?

Enrique Viale

I'm going to address this from two angles. One is, with the alarming levels of inequality and poverty we have, how do they do it? Look at the power these lobbies have to promote the idea that Vaca Muerta is saving us. The socioeconomic situation in Argentina is alarming. Of course, it's not solely a consequence of Vaca Muerta, but it is a consequence of the extractive model. I'm convinced that the agribusiness model, the mega-mining model, brings about these kinds of things. So, how do they manage it? It's truly a subject that needs to be studied, and you, being in the media for so long, should address it more directly. How does Monsanto manage to poison our food and still have people eat it?

Clemente Cancela

How do you envision the situation between Argentina and fracking in a few years? Five or ten years from now, I mean, with increased awareness on the one hand, and also with the country's current economic situation. I mean, do you imagine fracking could be relegated? You also mentioned that lithium is already starting to become like the new El Dorado.

Enrique Viale

We've long faced the challenge of discussing what YPF, for example, would look like in the 21st century—a truly national company. YPF is currently 51% nationally owned, while 49% belongs to BlackRock, meaning large transnational corporations. But the remaining 51% is national. What should YPF, or a state-owned company, be like? How should it adapt for the future? The future lies elsewhere. Those most invested in planning the transition away from fossil fuels should be, first and foremost, the oil workers. Unfortunately, in Argentina, the oil workers' union is completely complicit and doesn't care about its workers, only about its own business interests. Oil companies, on the other hand, should be saying, "No, I have to adapt." And especially a state-owned company. How can I ensure that in this 21st century, these state-owned companies have large businesses that generate significant employment and genuine development, like YPF did in the 20th century? It must be said: at the beginning of the 20th century, YPF, which had a very significant political impact at the time, with the support of the government, founded towns and built schools. You can see it… the pride of YPF, right? That's something we can reclaim. It should be done, but now directed not towards the expansion of fossil fuels, but towards a 21st-century YPF focused on clean, renewable energy. And in the same places where YPF was active in the 20th century: Patagonia, with some of the best winds on the planet, where oil was first discovered, Comodoro Rivadavia, and northern Argentina, where it also thrived. YPF was very important in the 20th century thanks to the abundant sunshine. So I envision a productive chain there, a whole transformation process, with a very strong commitment to oil workers, who in Argentina are being left behind… The oil worker who earns a very good living is very close to retirement, what some call obsolete assets. What is an oil worker going to do if that's perhaps all they know? You have to train them in these new energies so they can earn as much money as they do now and can start replacing imports. Say, well, we're going to make solar panels in Argentina, and that will create a small, medium, or almost large company. And you start a situation that is very interesting, but you have to start aiming for that. The energy transition has never been about deepening our reliance on fossil fuels in Vaca Muerta, as we are doing in Argentina, through two extreme energy sources, as we say, fracking and offshore drilling. We have to go in another direction. Is there anyone in Latin America who is thinking about this? Yes, Gustavo Petro. Gustavo Petro and Francia Marqués, in Colombia, where even Ecopetrol, which is the YPF of that country, and which is also 100% state-owned, is thinking about that, and the government itself is making a very concrete transition plan to move away from fossil fuels, for example, by not opening up new hydrocarbon frontiers.

Clemente Cancela

The solution, then, would be an energy transition.

Enrique Viale

But not just any energy transition. An energy transition so that every American has their own Tesla or every European has their own electric BMW or Mercedes-Benz? Where our region once again becomes a sacrifice zone. We need a just, people-centered energy transition, one that considers local communities, that considers production chains… There is even an economic solution in the energy transition, but we have to fight for it because it is contested: a just transition or a corporate transition. That is the great debate of the moment.

Clemente Cancela

Thank you, Enrique.

Enrique Viale

Thank you very much.

Clemente Cancela

This was something different. A podcast produced by Patagonia that champions causes that matter and touches on our identity. We hope it inspired you to help us save the planet.