Juan José Aranguren

Juan José Aranguren is an Argentine businessman. He was Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell of Argentina for fifteen years and served as Minister of Energy during the Mauricio Macri's administration.

Juan José Aranguren
Minister of Energy of Argentina
In office December 10, 2015 – June 28, 2018
Personal details
Born	August 31, 1954 Beccar, Argentina
Nationality	Argentine
Political party	Cambiemos
Residence	Olivos, Buenos Aires
Alma mater	University of Buenos Aires
Occupation	Businessman

Biography

Aranguren was born in the Entre Ríos Province, and became a chemical engineer at the University of Buenos Aires.

Royal Dutch Shell

He joined Shell Argentina in 1979, and became a director from 1997 to 2015. He opposed the administration of president Nestor and Cristina Kirchner and won several cases against the state for the state-controlled prices.[1]

Minister of Energy

He was appointed Minister of Energy by Mauricio Macri in 2015. Aranguren arranged the removal of state subsidies to electricity, gas, and water distribution, which caused a huge increase in the taxes for those services.[2]

Those increases were met by protests in numerous cities by people bearing banners, bugles, and noise-making cacerolazos.[3] The government justified it as a required step to reduce the huge fiscal deficit, and pointed that the subsidy system had almost ruined the whole energy distribution system.

Macri explained this at the State of the State report,[4] and Aranguren at an audience at the Congress.[5] Several courts nulled the tax increase, as it had been ordered with a previous audience with customers to explain it, as required by law. The Supreme Court ratified the temporary halt to the tax increase, but only for residential customers.[6] The customer audiences were celebrated in September.[2]

Controversies

Conflict of interest

Although he resigned to Shell to work as a minister of Energy, he still kept shares for $16.3 million from the company. There was a controversy over it, as some of his rulings benefited Shell, and he may have had a conflict of interest in it. Aranguren considered that there was no conflict of interest, but sold his shares anyway, as suggested by the anticorruption office. He considered that government transparency had to clear for the Argentine society.[7]

Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Aranguren have managed two offshore companies, Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited and Sol Antilles y Guianas Limited, both subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell. One is the main bidder for the purchase of diesel oil by the current government through the state owned CAMMESA (Compañía Administradora del Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico).[8]

References

1. "Juan José Aranguren, ministro de Energía" [Juan José Aranguren, minister of energy] (in Spanish). La Nación. November 25, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
2. "Protestan contra el tarifazo a metros de la audiencia pública por el gas" [Protests against the tax increase at meters of the public audience for the gas distribution] (in Spanish). La Nación. September 16, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
3. "Cacerolazos en distintos puntos del país contra el tarifazo" [Cacerolazos at several points of the country against the tax increases] (in Spanish). Perfil. July 15, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
4. "El Gobierno presentó un informe global con datos alarmantes sobre la herencia del kirchnerismo" [The government presented a report with alarming data about the Kirchner's legacy] (in Spanish). La Nación. June 3, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
5. Martín Bidegaray (August 17, 2016). "Tarifas: en el Congreso, Aranguren defendió la suba sin necesidad de audiencias" [Taxes: in Congress, Aranguren justified the increase without audiences] (in Spanish). Clarín. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
6. "La Corte frenó el aumento de tarifas para usuarios residenciales" [The Court halted the tax increase for residential users] (in Spanish). La Voz. August 18, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
7. Maia Jastreblansky (September 14, 2016). "Aranguren vendió sus acciones en Shell para cerrar la polémica" [Aranguren sold his shares in Shell to close the controversy] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
8. "Aranguren: su paso por una offshore de Shell a la que el Estado le compró gasoil por US$ 150 M". Perfil. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.