Causes
The energy crisis was blamed on a number of factors. Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner attributed it on lack of investment on the part of the private companies that extract the resource (such as Repsol YPF), and the concomitant lack of pressure from past governments on those companies.
The private corporations contended that their profits after the collapse of the Argentine economy were severely hurt by the freezing of domestic and industrial fees since 2002. Natural gas remained at the same price during the inflationary process caused by the devaluation of the Argentine peso, while the prices of gasoline and diesel were adjusted upwards, which increased the demand for gas as a cheap alternative fuel and at the same time discouraged its production. In addition to this, a larger part of the supply of natural gas was required to compensate for a smaller yield of hydroelectricity.
The exporters complained that heavy export tariffs compounded with the price freezing and prevented them from investing on more surveyance and further exploitation, thus leaving them unable to keep up with demand. However, the government and critics of the neoliberal model of the Menem administration point out that the privatized companies obtained huge profits during the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: 2004 Argentine Energy Crisis