Argentina to privatize state-owned gas, oil, power company Enarsa

Argentina's Energy Secretariat said April 25 it launched a process to privatize Enarsa, a company that handles the country's natural gas imports, trades gas and has interests in oil production and the power sector.

"The private sectorcan not onlydo it better, but it is also the natural engine of investment, employment and innovation," the secretariat said in a statement of the plan to sell Enarsa.

The privatization is part of a wider push by the right-wing Javier Milei administration to sell off state assets, including many in the energy sector, to reduce public spending, improve services and boost energy supplies.

With the sale, the government will focus instead on regulating the energy sector, the secretariat added.

A former left-wing government created Enarsa in 2004 to handle the country's gas imports from Bolivia and off the global LNG market. The business gradually expanded into power generation and transmission, as well as gas and power trading. Enarsa owns a stake in Gobernador Ayala III, a block in La Pampa province that produces some 1,000 b/d.

Enarsa's biggest business has been importing gas, but it is in decline. Argentina stopped importing gas from Bolivia in 2024 and is importing less LNG as domestic gas production grows, led by the Vaca Muerta, one of the world's largest shale plays. The number of imported cargoes fell to 30 in 2024 from 44 in 2023 and a peak of around 100 in the 2010s, according to Enarsa.