Offshore oil exploration off the coast of Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires):

a chronology of a latent socio-environmental conflict

Abstract

The approval of an offshore oil exploration project off the coast of the city of Mar del Plata triggered a conflict with the local community that succeeded in bringing the initiative to a halt with a court order, which generated a public debate on  the possible environmental impacts of the project and the implications for the sustainability of the oceans. Through a review of the regulatory framework, project approval documents, journalistic notes and multiple public statements of the actors involved, we sought to reconstruct the chronology of the conflict and reflect the multiple aspects and perspectives of the problem. Based on this work, it was possible to identify the arguments for and against the project and contrast them with scientific evidence generated at an international level, and to frame the case study in the debates on the blue economy and ocean sustainability. The results obtained helped to establish a line of argumentation of the conflict and to identify key elements of the discussion about possible future scenarios that could be applied for the case study.