Ex-menem era official named as energy secretary

President-elect Javier Milei has confirmed that Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo will be Argentina’s net energy secretary. The news was confirmed in the regular daily statement from Milei’s team. “The Office of the President Elect of the Argentine Republic informs that Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo will be in charge of the Energy portfolio in the incoming government,” it read.

In Milei’s sweeping restructuring of the Cabinet, the Energy Secretariat will now form part of the Infrastructure Ministry as from December 10. The portfolio will be headed by Guillermo Ferraro.

Milei also confirmed the appointments of Osvalo Giordano and Horacio Marín, who will head the ANSES social security agency and YPF state energy firm respectively.

Chirillo faces the tough task of restructuring Argentina’s complicated web of subsidies and tariffs for public utilities, such as electricity, water and gas. Yet he is not without previous experience of government – in 1995, during former president Carlos Menem’s administration, he was named a consultant to the Energy Secretariat, then led by Domingo Cavallo, serving two years. In 2001, he served as an advisor to the Infrastructure & Housing Ministry, then headed by Carlos Bastos, in former president Fernando de la Rúa’s government.

Currently employed by the ERC & Asociados law firm, of which he is a founding partner, Chirillo previously worked for Spanish energy company Iberdrola and advised the Interamerican Development Bank.

Last June, when rumours of his potential appointment first began circulating, Chirillo delivered a speech at the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI). During his address, he argued that subsidies should be eliminated as they “go against the responsible use and saving of energy.”

According to the Noticias Argentinas news agency, Chirillo has been working for months in the shadows and has vast experience in the local and international energy sector. Among other measures, the incoming official plans to merge the ENRE and ENARGAS regulators to save costs and establish “a more comprehensive regulation.”