Jblaze - I remember you saying you lived down south somewhere? Do you work in the oil industry? How do you view all of this?
been working here for about 1.5 years now. I went home to visit the states the day before all this corona virus stuff cut off the planes. So I've been stuck here since the first week in March.
These are my personal (not related in any way to my company) opinions from having worked in AR.
oil is suffering greatly. but so is everything else except for zoom stock. I was always proud to work along side my AR nationals who gave a damn and had some pride in their work. We have high expectations and those who were willing to work hard with us carried on and those who weren't in line with this idea were left in the dust. I took a group of unguided hands and made them a group that didn't accept mediocrity. It took a year to make them believe in themselves... If something was broken, we would fix it. If they needed something to do a job we would provide it. All you have to do is speak up. We put the responsibility to work safely on the shoulders of those doing the work (with our support). Previously it was always some excuse as to why something did or didn't happen. "I had no training, so I didn't know" "we don't have the right tools so that's why that guy got hurt". It was always some excuse, never "I messed up, I made an accident or I was unaware of the dangers, I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to happen" even if the incident investigation clearly pointed operator error. Crews were never efficient... my Mexican crews from the states would have ran circles around most of the common crews here with half the people. You didn't need to babysit them either because you didn't need to worry about them drinking mate and talking all day long. After a while we identified a few good crews here and there that were interested in making money and doing work. We treated these guys very well with rewards for meeting safety and performance goals. A couple free chivos goes a long way down there and is very appreciated.
We were always getting shit from the unions about holding under performers responsible for their actions. The government would never, in a timely manner, let equipment into the country that would facilitate the growth of their natural resources. Permitting for anything was an overly burdensome and time sucking process. Getting a permit would take months and it was never the same process, each permit (although it was the same type of project) was subject to different criteria based on the assigned government reviewer. There were no standards by which to be reviewed. It was nuts.
This place has huge potential but there was always someone standing in the way trying to get a piece of the pie or just plain make someone else's life harder. If the unions and government would step aside and let this thing run it would have made money for everyone. but that's not how things work there. Oil is a game of margins and you have to be hard working, quick, decisive, and creative to make it work... Argentina does not have a strong desire to be any of these things.
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