This is the case of the agreement signed by the Uruguayan State oil company ANCAP (a monopoly) and Schuepbach Energy (US) for the exploration of hydrocarbons in several departments of the country, opening the doors to the use of technologies such as fracking.

An analysis of said agreement was launched on Thursday June 4 by the members of REDES-Friends of the Earth Uruguay, Natalia Carrau and Viviana Barreto at the Forum “Sustainable, Just and Sovereign Energy System” at the University of the Republic.

“The agreement puts the company at the same level of the State. The company exerts influence in the determination of public policies in a direct way: a parity of representation in technical spaces to follow up the agreement where practices are established in addition to the areas to be developed, instruments, resources, among other things. The primary and nontransferable responsibility of the State around energy policies is ignored”, said the researchers.

“A strict secrecy surrounds the agreements”, they stated. “With this model of Business-State agreements and bilateral investment treaties, the capacity of the State to control is limited and the spaces to build public policies are privatized”, states the analysis.

The Forum was organized by Redes – Friends of the Earth Uruguay and the Sustainable Uruguay Program with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, France Libertes Foundation Danielle Mitterrand, the Transnational Institute (TNI, Netherlands).