ABSTRACT The article analyses the role of Buenos Aires as a ‘gateway city’ for the oil and gas sector, in particular its impact on development in the Argentinean hinterland. Two approaches are combined, one from Economic Geography and one from Urban Geography: production networks and global cities. For this, the author proposes five features to characterize cities in production networks. He shows that the concentration of corporate headquarters, the government and public institutions explain the central role of Buenos Aires. Transport and logistics, as well as the transmission of knowledge are also important. Industrial processing is not a relevant element of this gateway city. Peripheral locations are integrated into production networks because they provide labour and, via SMEs, generic products and services. However, activities that are knowledge-intensive and/or closely linked to value capture, hardly relocate to the periphery.

RESUMEN El artículo analiza el rol de Buenos Aires como “ciudad compuerta” en el sector petrolero, especialmente su impacto sobre el desarrollo en el interior de Argentina. En él se combinan dos enfoques, uno de geografía económica y otro de geografía urbana: redes de producción y ciudades globales. El autor propone considerar cinco elementos que caracterizan a las ciudades en redes de producción. Se demuestra que la concentración de sedes corporativas, así como del gobierno e instituciones públicas, explican el rol central de Buenos Aires. También transporte y logística, así como la transmisión de conocimiento, son allí funciones importantes. El procesamiento industrial no es una característica relevante de esta ciudad compuerta. Los lugares periféricos se integran a las redes de producción porque prestan mano de obra y, por medio de las pymes, productos y servicios genéricos. Sin embargo, las actividades intensivas en conocimiento y/o altamente ligadas a la captura de valor escasamente se expanden hacia la periferia.

Resumo Além de fomentar o aumento do comércio entre países, a globalização tem mudado significativamente os processos econômicos ao possibilitar que as empresas dividam as cadeias de produção e comercialização em vários segmentos, que se espalham por todo o mundo. Nesse sentido, as redes de produção globais (RPGs), fragmentadas organizacionalmente e dispersas espacialmente, têm se constituído em uma nova estrutura que impulsiona cada vez mais a economia mundial. Partindo dos conceitos de densidade, distância e divisão, considerados pelo Relatório de Desenvolvimento Mundial do Banco Mundial de 2009 como fatores determinantes para se forjar o desenvolvimento regional, este artigo objetiva analisar a maneira pela qual o setor de petróleo e gás no Brasil tem se conectado às RPGs, as condições que beneficiam e dificultam essas conexões, e as implicações disso para o desenvolvimento regional.

Abstract In addition to fostering increased trade between countries, globalization has significantly changed economic processes by enabling companies to divide production and marketing chains into various segments, which have spread throughout the world. Therefore, organizationally fragmented and spatially dispersed global production networks (GPNs) have become a new structure that is increasingly driving the world economy. Based on the concepts of density, distance and division, which are deemed by the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009 as determining factors of forging regional development, this article aims to analyze the way in which Brazil’s oil and gas sector has connected to GPNs, the conditions that benefit as well as hinder these connections and the implications of this for regional development.

Brazil has been labeled an anchor country, a leading area, and a regional power. Yet, even before the crisis triggered by Operation ‘Car Wash’ began, several scholars had called into question Brazil’s driving role in regional integration, stressing political challenges and economic weaknesses that hindered closer relationships among the South American countries. More optimistic research tends to concentrate on initiatives and visions of Brazil’s regional leadership, with lesser focus on obstacles and implementation. We develop the concept of ‘geoeconomic nodality’ to assess Brazi’s impact on South America and shed light on the structural sources of economic fragmentation, namely geographical conditions and their interaction with public policies. A geoeconomic node is the core of economic networks in a geographically delimited system. The flows of the system’s units are focused on the node, enabling it to transfer impulses for development – and reflecting what the concepts on anchor countries, leading areas, and regional powers suggest. Our findings show that long distances, physical barriers, the maritime orientation of core zones of population and economic activity, and the poor state of transcontinental infrastructure reduce Brazil’s geoeconomic nodality. Resource nationalism, volatile public policies, and fluctuating exchange rates contribute to this structural mix, so that the prospects to overcome the obstacles imposed by geography appear dim.