Argentina: Local Production Subsidies to Continue

Argentina will maintain subsidies to the country's oil producers next year, energy Minister Juan Jose Aranguren told reporters on Tuesday, ending speculation that the ministry was set to remove subsidies paid for by consumers at the gas pump.

A new subsidy deal is expected to be signed with oil companies next month, Aranguren said.

"A floor will be maintained at $55 per barrel for crude from the Neuquen basin and $47 per barrel for heavy crude," Aranguren told journalists after a meeting with oil company executives.

He said the subsidies should become moot in mid-2017, when he expects world oil prices to rise to subsidized levels.

Industry sources told Reuters last month that they expected oil subsidies to be reduced.

Home heating oil and other subsidy cuts have been a key part of President Mauricio Macri's effort to close his government's budget deficit. The administration expects the shortfall to amount to 4.8 percent of gross domestic product at the end of December despite a sharp increase in end-of-year spending.

In a decree published on Monday, the government altered the budget to boost public spending by about 130 billion pesos ($7.9 billion) to pay subsidies and retirees and to service debt.

Reporting by Juliana Castilla