One hundred years of YPF. Political projects for the appropriation of hydrocarbon rent in a scenario of world energy crisis and in the context of war and pandemic

Abstract

Historically, there has been a dispute for the appropriation of rent, organized around alternative political projects. At present, this dispute acquires particular characteristics, crossed by the adjustments imposed in the hydrocarbon and energy sector by the present pandemic and the recent armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which compromises the supply and prices of hydrocarbons at global level. The general objective of this work is to advance in the understanding of the specificity of the national process of capital accumulation, regarding the forms of generation and appropriation of the economic surplus originated in the hydrocarbon production sector and its crystallization in relations of domination and power between classes and class fractions, with prominent participation of the State. The aim is to contribute to the knowledge of the National Hydrocarbons Policy, as an instrument of state intervention in the production and distribution of income, through the social conformation of YPF and the legal characterization of hydrocarbons in its oscillation between forms of public or private property, on the one hand, national or provincial, on the other hand, and mixed forms, taking into account the characteristics assumed from the regulations in force in the contemporary sanitary and geopolitical context.