Vaca Muerta fracking operations got off to a slow start after the vast extent of the Patagonian shale formation’s oil and gas reserves were recognized in 2011, but hydrocarbon production there has gained momentum in recent years, as have plans for related infrastructure. (Photo by Shutterstock)
Argentine economic expectations surged in 2011, when the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the country possessed among the world’s largest shale oil and shale gas reserves. Since then, Argentina has not become the Saudi Arabia-grade powerhouse that its president at the time, Cristina Kirchner, forecast it would, but the country nevertheless has begun to derive benefit from its extraordinary fossil-fuel resource. That resource lies in Vaca Muerta, the 30,000-square-kilometer (11,600-sq.-mile) oil- and gas-rich shale formation centered in the Patagonian province of Neuquén. Though it began fitfully at first, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at Vaca Muerta has begun to transform the country’s energy picture. In the first half of 2024, according to official government figures, Argentina showed its first energy trade surplus in 15 years—a positive balance of US$2.75 billion based on exports of US$4.81 billion and imports of $2.06... [Log in to read more]
