In January this year, the Federal Court of Appeals in Mar del Plata dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by several environmentalist organizations and the mayor of the coastal resort city against an offshore oil and gas exploration project.
Argentina is the home of the second-largest shale formation in the world, containing an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil and 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is also one of the most troubled economies in the world, with crises more or less now chronic.