Argentina’s market deregulation efforts are expected to raise the energy investments in the country by about $2.5 billion to $15 billion next year, Energy Secretary Eduardo Rodriguez Chirillo said at an industry event.
The government of Argentinian President Javier Milei has pushed for new legislation, the so-called Large Investment Incentive Regime – or RIGI, by its Spanish initials – offering tax breaks and other incentives for major investors in the South American country.
“These (new) rules will help shore up investments that are already in development,” Rodriguez Chirillo said at the event, as carried by Reuters.
Thanks to the RIGI investment regime, Argentina expects a combined $30 billion in energy investments in 2025 and 2026, the energy secretary said.
In the first nine months of the Milei administration, the energy sector saw the highest oil production in 15 years in the first half of 2024, as well as the highest natural gas output in 17 years over the same period, Rodriguez Chirillo wrote on X.
The energy ministry is laying the foundations for the sector to be one of the engines of economic growth in Argentina, the secretary said.
Argentina relies on the Vaca Muerta shale play to boost its oil and gas production.
Vaca Muerta is estimated to hold recoverable resources consisting of 16 billion barrels of oil and 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Those numbers make the Vaca Muerta the world’s second-largest shale gas deposit.
Supertankers could begin docking in Argentina to load oil from the country’s shale patch after a pipeline is set to connect Vaca Muerta with a terminal at Punta Colorada port capable of handling the so-called very large crude carriers (VLCCs).
Argentina is also moving a step closer to exporting LNG and monetizing its huge resource in the Vaca Muerta after maritime LNG infrastructure firm Golar LNG signed a 20-year deal with Pan American Energy (PAE) for the deployment of a Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) vessel in Argentina.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Lead image (Credit: Reuters)
