Investments in Argentina: The growing Oil and Gas Industry

Argentina has a long history as a world-class producer, with high-level natural, professional and technological resources that create solid conditions for the growth of the oil industry in the country. Thanks to the wealth of its reserves, Argentina has the conditions to become a world-class energy supplier, with participation in the global energy markets via crude oil and gas exports. Ranked number 4 in unconventional oil resources worldwide, along with the United States, Canada and China, it has an extensive unexploited offshore platform of approximately 500,000 km2. It also generates an investment of 10 billion dollars a year for the development of unconventional resources.

The most important oil field in Argentina is Vaca Muerta, located in the provinces of Neuquén, La Pampa and Mendoza. With a total area of ​​36,000 km2, equivalent to the territory occupied by Switzerland or the Netherlands. With only 4% massive development of its size, its resources are estimated at 16 billion barrels of oil and 308 trillion cubic feet of gas, a more than impressive number. Currently Vaca Muerta has many actors who are working on it, obtaining optimal results with very good productivity.

The Argentine government is betting a lot on this sector and its investment and that is why it is continuously advancing in the improvement of infrastructure and in the construction of the railway line for a better distribution and connection. In addition to this, in recent months, important announcements and investment commitments were made where the government agreed with different actors, new rules of the game that make it even more attractive. The Program to Stimulate Investments in Natural Gas Production Developments from Non-Conventional Reservoirs was also created, which guarantees a minimum remuneration for new gas projects in Vaca Muerta of US $ 6.5 per million BTU and US $ 6 in 2021.

In turn, there are the different exploration areas already tendered and awarded, such as the Argentina Norte basins with a depth of 4000 meters, Austral with 100 meters and Malvinas Oeste with 600 meters, where in total there will be more than 94,800 km2 that they had never been explored. For this year, a second call is scheduled to award exploration areas where the procedures are already ready to move forward with the tenders in the second quarter of 2020.