27 May 2024
Argentina – Can the dead cow be brought back to life?
Publication date: 01 February 2014
Gas Strategies Group
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EC4A 4AD
ISSN: 0964-8496
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With the focus on potential shale gas markets beyond the US intensifying, Argentina has a golden opportunity. Its 802 Tcf of technically recoverable shale gas places the South American nation second only to China globally, according to the EIA. Argentina became a net importer of natural gas in 2008 and has seen domestic demand grow strongly and production slump further in the years since. Shale resources – principally in the Vaca Muerta* oil and gas formation in western Patagonia – offer Argentina the possibility of returning to energy self-sufficiency and even becoming an important exporter once more. But with Chevron the only international investor committing big money to date, 2014 could reveal whether mistrust in the country’s government is simply too great for it to become the next global shale hotspot.