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Fracking Patagonia

2014 | 45 min | Recommended min. age: 16 y

France, 2011: Following a very significant civic movement, a bill was passed prohibiting hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on French territory. This eventually resulted in the repeal of the license of Montelimar, originally granted to Total.
But this corporation is free to go and exploit shale gas and shale oil elsewhere in Europe and around the world. As the second gas operator in Argentina, and before any other large multinationals, Total acquired unconventional gas permits in the province of Neuquén in Patagonia, including one within a protected area. The Vaca Muerta basin, which covers over 30,000 km 2, quickly also became the new El Dorado of other oil companies such as Chevron, YPF , Shell, Apache: Argentina is the third largest country in the world in terms of potentially exploitable shale gas and oil reserves.
Local communities, and in particular small farmers members of the Mapuche communities, have already been suffering from the impacts of decades of conventional oil and gas exploitation and are again trapped by foreign corporations and YPF, the re-nationalized State company. The government secured this agreement without a single consultation. Resistance begins.

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