Argentina watch: Vaca Muerta pipeline construction-phase work, offshore public consultation

Construction-phase work has started in Neuquén province on Argentina’s biggest midstream hydrocarbons infrastructure project – the Vaca Muerta gas pipeline.

Following the arrival of heavy machinery in Tratayén, engineers are carrying out site preparation work along the proposed route of the pipeline, state energy company Energía Argentina said.

The main duct will link Tratayén with Salliqueló in Buenos Aires province, helping ease a dispatch bottleneck at the Vaca Muerta unconventional hydrocarbons formation and the wider Neuquén basin.

Work involves laying around 570km of pipeline. Energía Argentina recently awarded contracts for 140 valves, for the main duct and ancillary infrastructure.

Argentina’s government wants the project, which is the first of a two-phase project, operational by mid-2023 to help substitute costly imported LNG and support exports. 

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The country’s environment ministry is due to hold a public consultation on Wednesday on a planned offshore hydrocarbons exploration project.

The focus is on environmental evaluation documentation corresponding to the Argerich-1 well, planned for block CAN-100 in the Argentina Norte basin.

Argerich-1 is planned for 15,000km2 area CAN-100, located some 300km offshore Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires province, and operated by Norway’s Equinor, with partners Argentine state oil company YPF and Anglo-Dutch player Shell.

The well would be the first drilled in Argentina's ultra-deep waters. The associated outlay is estimated at US$100mn, with work penciled in to start at the block – the biggest in the basin – in 1Q23, the federal energy department said earlier this year.

The public consultation will be broadcast via YouTube.