Comodoro Rivadavia

In 1903 six hundred Afrikaner families arrived in Argentina following the loss of the Second Boer War. They were given farming land in the lands around Comodoro Rivadavia but due to a shortage of water had to bring water in by ox wagon. The lack of water was a big impediment to the development of the settlement. At the Afrikaners' insistence drilling began in 1907 in an effort to look for water but instead they struck oil. Although much of the oil was discovered on land given to Afrikaans settlers, they could not benefit directly from the discovery due to Argentinian law which decrees that all mineral deposits belong to the state. Therefore, most of the town's Afrikaans settlers moved on to Sarmiento and surrounding regions to set up farms there.[2]

The discovery of oil in 1907 boosted economic growth in Comodoro Rivadavia. By the end of 1919, most of the 1719 workers were given accommodation in small metal sheet houses without any heating or electric light with temperatures below zero and winds near 100 km/h. The establishment of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) in 1922 led to the development of the town, further accelerated afterand the end of the 1950s by President Arturo Frondizi's oil campaign to foster the installation of numerous foreign companies. The city evolved around this industry, and even today when this panorama has changed substantially, it is still called the "National Oil Capital."

The beach village Rada Tilly was founded on July 24, 1948, and today is an important hub for tourism in Argentina. Oil production has begun to decline in quantity but the area has been turning its attention to wind power. Windmills on Cerro Chenque and surrounding hills comprise South America's largest wind farm and provide 20% of Comodoro's energy needs.

Comodoro Rivadavia is the biggest city to the south of the Colorado River. The city developed from the oil camps which evolved into neighbourhoods.

The city is divided into three main areas: North Area, South Area and Downtown Area.

The South Area is the most populated in the city. The neighbourhoods are: Jorge Newbery, San Martin, 1311 Viviendas, Cerro Solo, Ñaco, San Cayetano, Francisco Pietrobelli, Las Flores, La Floresta, Máximo Abasolo, Moure, Cordón Forestal, Quirno Costa, Maestro Isidro Quiroga, Juan XIII, San Isidro Labrador, 9 de Julio, 13 de Diciembre, Julio A. Roca, Juan Manuel de Pueyrredon, 30 de Octubre, LU4, Abel Amaya, Industrial, Stella Maris, Ceferino Namuncurá, Jose Fuchs, Balcón del Paraiso, Covipex, Rincón del Diablo, 311 Viviendas and Humberto Beghin.

The Downtown area is divided into: Centro, Loma and Civico neighbourhood.

Campus of the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco

The Northern Area is divided into:

• 3rd Kilometre
• 4th Kilometre, home of National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco.
• 5th Kilometre.
• 6th Kilometre, home of General Enrique Mosconi International Airport) and Petroleros Privados.
• 8th Kilometre.

Panoramic view of the city.

The Casino Club Comodoro, part of a growing tourism sector

The commercial and industrial activities of the city are the most important in the region. The main activities of the city are: production of chemical products, elaborated concrete, salter, fabrication of industrial houses, shipyard, metallurgical products, refrigerated products, industrial factories, casting, textile industry, blocks and bricks, and cement.

The oil production started in Chubut in 1907, when a drilling rig which was looking for water discovered oil instead. The Argentine oil industry started in Comodoro Rivadavia, and was facilitated by the 1886 National Mining Code (Codigo de Mineria de la Nación). This code established that the oil fields belonged to the State, and that they could also be exploited by the private sector by concession.

In 1922 YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales), the first state-owned oil company in the world, was created by President Hipólito Yrigoyen's government. This company helped the society by improving the construction of houses, providing new jobs and health care. Engineer Enrique Mosconi was in charge of running the company. By 1933, 1,648 wells had been drilled in Comodoro Rivadavia; 88.9% of them were economically productive.

The PCR petrochemical company, a leading local employer

In 1935 the First Oil Law was passed. It established that the National and provincial States would receive as contribution the 12% of the Gross Product from all oil drilling, which is still in effect.

In 1958, Law Number 14,773 was signed by President Arturo Frondizi, establishing that the Government had exclusive ownership over all oil fields.

The most important oil fields discovered during the 60's were El Huemul and Piedra Clavada. At the beginning of the same decade twenty wells were drilled.

Between 1977 and 1986, 100 million m³ oil were drilled from San Jorge gulf, in the meantime the oil reserves reached 40 million m³; in 1979 the San Jorge gulf production reached 10,124,022 m³ of oil.

Until 2001, 5,300 wells were drilled, of which 3,000 were economically productive. As a result of the exploratory activities developed during the century, the remaining reserves reach 182.017 million m³ of oil. San Jorge gulf is the leader in oil extraction. 46,000 m³ per day are extracted in the zone, representing 46% of total crude oil production in the nation.

The Port Zone from Chenque Hill

Since 1908, the small and weak port Maciel received passengers and shipments that arrived at the city of Comodoro Rivadavia. It was built of wood and only could support small ships. In 1923, the construction of the port started. In 1926 the construction was stopped, but in 1928 it was resumed.

The shipyard has two parallel industrial facilities of 70 meters long and 4 meters wide. This allows the repair and building of ships in a roofed space without the weather affecting the activity. The shipyard has three travelling cranes of 8 tons each. Works made in the shipyard include the building of eolic mill towers and oil buoys.

The port facilities include:

• The principal Port situated near the downtown. Its extreme point called Punta Borja, was designed to receive ships up to 181 meters length and 10 meters depth. The port has a pier of 216 meters long, which was built to meet the demand of the transportation of commodities, deep-sea fishing and naval repairs.
• Caleta Cordova's low tide pier is located in the north of Comodoro Rivadavia city, over the coast of Caleta Cordova's neighborhood. This pier meets the demand of artisan fishing.
• Repsol-YPF's pier, located in the south of General Mosconi neighbourhood, is used for unloading fuel. The total fuel unloaded is over 29,000 liters per month.
• Caleta Olivares's facilities are used to load crude oil. It has four mooring buoys and one bell buoy. The depth of this area is 9 meters.
• Caleta Cordova's facilities for loading crude oil include one charge buoy and four mooring buoys. These facilities located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) away from the coast are used for mooring ships up to 100.000 tons and 11 meters depth.

The Comodoro Rivadavia wind farm

The city also is home to a factory that produces concrete, property of Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia S.A. It produces different types of concrete: Standard Portland, Puzolanic, BCA, ARI, bricklaying concrete Caltex, concrete for oil industry. The total production of concrete for the year 2002 was 228,000 tons.

The wind farm of Comodoro Rivadavia has a capacity of 18,820 kW with 26 generators, and is the most important in Latin America. Plans exist to connection it the national energy, which could allow the sale of energy to other regions.