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up to date · reviewed Aug 31, 2026
In force since Nov 15, 1995

Royalties are shared by population, not by where the field is

Ley provincial 2148 (enacted on 15-Nov-1995)
in forcePROVINCIAL State, institutions and security

Ley 2148 puts hydrocarbon royalties into the shared pool, gives 15% to the municipalities and splits seven out of every ten pesos by inhabitants.

The other rules on this subject27

Private property: expropriation costs more and eviction speeds up (half-sanctioned)Bill PE-13/2026 (Mensaje 22/26) — first-round approval in the Senate; now in the Chamber of Deputies (file 0032-S-2026)pending

What changed and who it applies to

What changed
This is the law that decides how much money each Neuquén municipality has, and where it comes from. The pool to be shared has three legs (article 2): the federal revenue-sharing of Ley 23.548, the provincial collection of the property, turnover and stamp taxes, and the amounts the Province actually receives in hydrocarbon royalties. Out of that pool, the municipalities take 15% (article 3). And the split of that 15% does not look at where the well is (article 4): 60% in direct relation to each municipality's population, 15% in inverse relation to salary cost per inhabitant, 10% by population excluding the provincial capital, 10% by what each municipality collects in its own taxes and 5% in equal parts. ⇒ seven out of every ten pesos of the split are assigned by inhabitants. The provincial bank settles it month by month (article 7); taking part requires the municipality to sign up expressly and not to tax on its own the tax bases it shares (article 9); and the population coefficients are updated every three years by census (article 5). Annex II of 1995 shows the mechanism in figures: Añelo had 0.82% of the municipal pool against 35.03% for the city of Neuquén, 7.50% for Zapala and 1.63% for Rincón de los Sauces. verif Nov 15, 1995 ↗
In force
The distribution regime applies from the first day of the month following its promulgation (article 13). Including royalties in the shared pool covers production generated from the enactment of the law, in November 1995 (article 2, subsection c). verif Nov 15, 1995 ↗
Who it applies to
The municipalities of Neuquén that adhered to the regime verif. And, indirectly, anyone who depends on the municipal infrastructure of an oil town: what each municipality receives depends above all on its population according to the census and on the total the province distributes, not on the production of its own district thesis. verif Nov 15, 1995 ↗
The norm
Ley provincial 2148 of Neuquén, «Régimen para la Coparticipación de Recursos a Municipios», enacted by the provincial legislature on 15-Nov-1995. It implements the agreement signed on 28-Dec-1993 between the provincial executive and the municipalities. Its article 9 ties it to Leyes provinciales 1753 and 2058, which the municipality must also sign up to in order to take part. verif Nov 15, 1995 ↗

Our reading

Here is the structural explanation of why the capital of Vaca Muerta has the infrastructure it has. Añelo does not collect for hosting the field: it collects by inhabitants, and the census that sets that number is updated every three years, always behind a population that has multiplied. A rise in royalties fattens the pool of all fifty-seven municipalities; what reaches Añelo is its coefficient, not its production. thesis That is the mechanism behind the unmet demand we have been measuring along the corridor — housing, water, sewers, waste, traffic: activity grows at private pace and the municipal cash at census pace. For a service provider that reads the other way round, and in the positive: what the municipality cannot finance is exactly the market that stays open, and the counterpart with the cash to hire it is not the municipality but the operator and its construction trusts. thesis

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Where it lands, province by province1

Neuquén It explains the disconnect between where the hydrocarbon is produced and where the public money that accompanies it lands. It does not change the activity; it changes the reading of which services each town along the corridor will be able to pay for and which ones are left to the private sector or to the operators' trusts. mixed thesis
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Ignacio Aredez
Analysis and curation: Ignacio Aredez
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  verif primary source · prob primary source pending · unconf a source said it · estim our own calculation · thesis our reading · the date belongs to the datum, at the precision its source allows