ARGENTINA’S libertarian President Javier Milei condemned a threat by the governor of the oil-rich province of Chubut to cut off energy supplies to the rest of the country amid a dispute over funding reductions on Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said the threat was “not an attack on the federal government, but on all Argentines.”

The squabble started late last week, when the federal government held back the transfer of 13,000 million pesos (£12m) in federal tax revenues to the Chubut province.

In response, Chubut Governor Ignacio Torres, who belongs to Argentina’s main conservative bloc that has backed Mr Milei, said his province would cut off oil and gas supplies on Wednesday if the funds are not disbursed.

Mr Torres’ position was shared by five other governors in hydrocarbon-producing Patagonia.

While verbal exchanges between Mr Milei and provincial governors have been going on for weeks, this is the first large-scale confrontation, with heads of provinces threatening to cut off energy supplies to the rest of the country.

Mr Adorni said on Monday that the government of President Milei, a far-right economist who has applied a series of shock economic policies since assuming power in December, “will not allow any more whims” to provincial leaders.