BUENOS AIRES: An appeals court judge Tuesday gave a green light for President Cristina Kirchner to be investigated for abuse of authority in a major Chevron fracking deal.
Local Buenos Aires lawmakers had sought the probe -- involving Chevron's fracking with state oil giant YPF at Vaca Muerta -- for alleged "abuse of power, dereliction of duty and attempted environmental damage."
Though a federal prosecutor first refused the case, an appeals judge said the investigation could proceed.
The US oil heavyweight and YPF just last week unveiled plans to spend another $1.6 billion to develop the Vaca Muerta shale formation for oil and gas projects.
Vaca Muerta, in Neuquen province in the southern Patagonia region, is a huge deposit that ranks Argentina second in the world for shale gas reserves and fourth for potential shale oil reserves.
Kirchner is keen to get Argentina from spending billions of dollars on energy imports every year to self-sufficiency. The country's energy import costs hit $9 billion in 2013 alone.
The massive energy bill is a top economic concern, because Argentina is losing its hard-currency reserves buying imports.
The deal with Chevron -- opposed by some opposition parties and environmental NGOs -- took effect in August 2013.
YPF has a one-third stake in the Vaca Muerta deal.
The investment announced last week came on top of $1.2 billion Chevron agreed to spend last year for a shale pilot project.
And the second phase of exploration calls for drilling 1,500 wells across 395 square kilometers (150 square miles) in the hopes of producing 50,000 barrels of oil per day and three million cubic meters of gas per day.
Various new techniques for extracting oil and gas, notably "fracking" involving the injection of water and chemicals deep into rock to release reserves, has lead to booming production in North America.
The flows of this cheap energy are causing upheaval on world markets in what the International Energy Agency describes as an energy revolution.
But critics point to studies that show fracking increases the risk of contaminating drinking water, warning of untold dangers to man and livestock.
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