Saturday, January 28th 2012 - 09:56 UTC

Argentina has “phenomenal” tight natural-gas prospects and “explosive output” is forecasted

Exxon Mobil Corp and Americas Petrogas Inc have “phenomenal” tight natural-gas prospects in Argentina and expect “explosive” output growth in 5 years, said Guimar Vaca Coca, managing director of Americas Petrogas.

Guimar Vaca Coca, managing director of Americas Petrogas

Petrogas expects shale-oil and gas output to reach at least 10,000 barrels a day by 2017, Vaca Coca said in an interview in Buenos Aires. The two companies are investing about 50 million dollars to drill wells in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region this year and expect to invest between 1.5 billion to 2 billion dollars by that date.

Argentina’s shale oil and so-called tight-gas resources may exceed the 21.9 trillion cubic meters estimated by the US Energy Information Administration, Vaca Coca said. Argentina’s shale resources are the third-largest in the world after China and the US, the EIA said in an April 2011 report.

“In the first well we drilled, we found excellent signs of tight gas,” Vaca Coca said on the sidelines of an American Business Conferences event. “We’re going to concentrate on testing the shale-gas prospects first and then we’ll examine the tight gas ones.”

Exxon, the largest US oil company, and Calgary-based Petrogas, are drilling at the same Vaca Muerta formation in the Neuquen Basin where YPF SA, Argentina’s largest energy company, made its biggest discovery of 927 million barrels of shale-oil resources on Nov. 7.

YPF discovery at the Loma La Lata field in Neuquen province was six times more than previously estimated. At the Vaca Muerta formation, 15 wells are producing between 200 and 600 barrels of oil a day, YPF, controlled by Madrid-based Repsol-YPF, said in November.

Shale producers use a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to extract gas embedded in the rock.

Exxon and Petrogas are exploring three wells this year at the Los Toldos blocks, which cover 163.500 acres in the Neuquen Basin, and Petrogas is drilling another well in the Yerba Buena block, Vaca Coca said on Friday.

Petrogas expects to have conventional oil and gas output of 20.000 to 25.000 barrels a day and be one of Argentina’s top 10 oil producers within 5 years, he said.

China’s technically recoverable shale-gas resources are estimated at 1,275 trillion cubic feet, while the U.S. has 862 trillion cubic feet of resources, according to the EIA report.
 

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1 briton (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 12:00 pm Report abuse
with all that gas, you wont need the gas of others then will you,
2 Conqueror (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 01:00 pm Report abuse
Can we hope that their gas industry will be truly “explosive”?
3 yankeeboy (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 02:55 pm Report abuse
Bolivia is freaking out with all of the nat gas discoveries in their 2 biggest buyers. I wonder if they will ever wake up and sell to Chile or will their pride make them starve?
4 ChrisR (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 04:35 pm Report abuse
Fracking for shale gas is potentially an enviromental disaster, especially for water courses and so far no-one has actually made a profit with it compared to conventional oil.

10k barrels a day is also small beer: what are they hiding given the investment numbers?
5 Frank (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 10:28 pm Report abuse
not as small as.. 'the Vaca Muerta formation, 15 wells are producing between 200 and 600 barrels of oil a day, '.... 80 tonnes a day give or take..... gollygosh.... 6 times more than the 12 tonnes originally forecast.....
6 Malvinero1 (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 10:42 pm Report abuse
Any interest by our brits friends? Or better stick to the non economically feasible Malvinas“oil findings”...
7 O gara (#) Jan 28th, 2012 - 11:42 pm Report abuse
Well As I have been trying to educate the City dwellers with Argentinas future they really should begin talking now as soon they will be thrown out like dolls.
8 Malvinero1 (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 04:06 am Report abuse
Well As I have been trying to educate the City dwellers with Argentinas future they really should begin talking now as soon they will be thrown out like dolls.
One thing I love about the 90% of the probrits here,O'Gara.Which one of them is the stupidiest of all?
No wonder,they are soo incompetent,they can not even manage to stick uk together.Ireland(unsolved for years),Scotland,Wales.....my God ,how incompeten the english
9 O gara (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 07:11 am Report abuse
Malvinero you are right you could almost feel sorry for davidito with his little englander supporters,Scotland leaving him little Britain and the divided kingdom,Europe.fed up to the teeth with english intransigence even the WASPS on the other side of the Atlantic find their little lapdog tiresome
10 Malvinero1 (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 12:59 pm Report abuse
Malvinero you are right you could almost feel sorry for davidito with his little englander supporters,Scotland leaving him little Britain and the divided kingdom,Europe.fed up to the teeth with english intransigence even the WASPS on the other side of the Atlantic find their little lapdog tiresome
Rigth,Mr O'Gara.All the Europeans are feed up at the brit incapacity to solve a small problem like Malvinas.Now if no oil it is found in Malvinas, and profitable deposit are found in Argentina...You will see how fast the nazi brits will switch sides...isolde,monty...they will sell them in no time...
AHAHHAHAAH
What a satisfaction..But the nicest part is that the brits will get No part in Argentina....They are soo incredible stupid....They manage to upset the 8th largest country in the world!! How stupid they can be...
VIVA IRELAND!!
11 yankeeboy (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 01:07 pm Report abuse
Just because they may have found something doesn't mean they can get it out of the ground and sell it. Argentina has lots of off shore oil and potential undiscovered on-shore oil but the gov't has mucked up the oil industry so badly that no one has been exploring for 10+ years! It makes no sense to explore in Argentina when you can't export it and you have to sell it back to the state for U$40/barrel.
They'll do the same with the nat gas, just like Bolivia and Venezuela, once it is found they'll (pseudo) nationalize it thinking the easy part is done then they won't be able to get it out of the ground or process it.
Argentina is still looking to supply LNG this year, they won't pay market price and want 180 days to pay the bill after they take delivery! They are 4 shipments short. Boy is that going to muck up the balance of trade at the wrong time. You can't pay in pesos...
12 Malvinero1 (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 04:31 pm Report abuse
Just because they may have found something doesn't mean they can get it out of the ground and sell it. Argentina has lots of off shore oil and potential undiscovered on-shore oil but the gov't has mucked up the oil industry so badly that no one has been exploring for 10+ years! It makes no sense to explore in Argentina when you can't export it and you have to sell it back to the state for U$40/barrel.
Ok yankee.....Thanks for telling me for things that I already know...Still the natural resurces are hugh in Argentina....The internal gas price and the 25% stake of the kirchner in YPF..we will deal with that in due time.....I am aware of that...
BTW the balance of trade is much worse in the uk,Spain,USA....Just living from borrowed time....ARGENTINA has NO PROBLEMS...(some small operational and the incompetent of kristy...yes...
13 yankeeboy (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 04:39 pm Report abuse
12. Keep telling yourself that Arg has no problems. I am sure it helps you sleep at night.

BTW how are the new gas/water/electric/tax/Subte/Bus rates treating you?
Hopefully whatever medication you are taking is made in Arg because they're stopped too... I wonder how long a heart/cancer/HIV patient can go with out their pills? Couple weeks...a month...guess we shall see!

I hear there are businesses all over BA shutting their doors because they have run out of parts and inventory due to the import blockade....that must be nice. So how expensive is an ipad in pesos now?

yeah its great there!!
14 tobias (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 08:27 pm Report abuse
Malvinero,

Your fusillades against Europe, UK, USA, etc, have become nugatory from extreme overuse across the website's commentary sections. I say this in in a bluff manner. I understand Argentina is attacked everywhere (outside the issue of the Falklands), but it is more rewarding to reply with strength of argument and not discursive harangues.

yankeeboy,

The United States is four times per capita wealthier, and people in your country are still deprived HIV pills, cancer treatment, for various reasons... You tell me which scenario is more perplexing and embarrassing for a nation.

It's really tedious to keep hearing the litany of complaints from foreigners, when they are not intended to be constructive. I don't forbid criticism from outsiders, being a firm believer in free expression, when they are earnest in nature. But gratuitous berating, specially in issues outside the subject matter only indicates agonistic insecurity or pugnaciousness.

By the way, who cares about an ipod. Never owned one nor a smart phone, and I'm doing great. I actually get to relax and smell the roses of life around me when I'm about. And my mortality rate surely is higher!
15 Malvinero1 (#) Jan 29th, 2012 - 08:46 pm Report abuse
I hear there are businesses all over BA shutting their doors because they have run out of parts and inventory due to the import blockade....that must be nice. So how expensive is an ipad in pesos now?

yeah its great there!!
Sure,but uk and USA are getting from borrowed money...How long can they hold???
They said the US dollar will not survive this decade has a world currency...
16 O gara (#) Jan 30th, 2012 - 04:25 am Report abuse
Malvinero dont worry about the juvenile :Puerto Arenas troll he is just an annoyance.If we want to talk about business closing there are a hell of a lot more in the US and then city than in Argentina
17 yankeeboy (#) Jan 30th, 2012 - 02:04 pm Report abuse
I heard dentists don't have whatever antibiotic agent they need to do root canals any longer...do you have to go to Uruguay or Chile to get your dental work done?

Another big Frigo is gone and so is EKI... I wonder why if the economy is as good as O'G and Mal say it is?
18 tobias (#) Jan 31st, 2012 - 07:48 pm Report abuse
Wow... talk about burking a response that confronted him directly.

Yankeeboy, firstly it is people from Uruguay and Chile who come into Argentina for treatment. That reality is irrefragable. This fact does not deny or veneer the huge problems in the public health system, which are predictable given the dearth of competition and accountability (and frankly, having to take care of hundreds of thousands of migrants in condition of irregularity and who do not pay into the system).

Second, what about the massive offshore industries in the Caribbean, Mexico, yes, even South America including Argentina, catering to Americans who cannot get or afford treatment, even dental services, at home?

You see, the visible symptoms may be different but the underlying cause is the same. For whatever reasons, medicine cannot be provided to all people: in countries with socialized medicine this is attributable to paucity or outright lack of resources, chiefly due to corruption and no incentive to streamline efficiency. In capitalist medicine countries it is caused by pricing out millions of individuals (and not merely the poor), which may create the illusion of well-equipped facilities, but it is an abundance achieved through supply-side concentration of excluding the non-target market (which are human beings) from accessing said resources. Excessive efficiency.

It is a rotten system either way. In my chimerical world, health would be a private-government-community-individual partnership (alongside self-defense and education).

A private system with competition to foster and promote evolution, buttressed by intelligent government resources and support which are NOT USED by the private sector to inflate costs, as they do today. Community involvement to look after and guard in the promoting of healthy habits in the population, wholesome and safe comestibles, and a salubrious environment. And personal responsibility in one's individual health and the pursuit of a healthful lifestyle.
19 ChrisR (#) Feb 01st, 2012 - 10:37 am Report abuse
Just to get back to the subject: WTF is going to develop these 'tight gas' areas?

Now CFK has made it clear that they are going to thieve the oil companies assets no international company in their right corporate mind would invest a dime in the place.

Perhaps FatBoy will come up with the answer. HaHaHa (sorry for that Argie moment). :o)
20 briton (#) Feb 01st, 2012 - 09:14 pm Report abuse
The boat is sinking, says the argie bloggers,
No it is not says CFK,
It’s up to our legs presidency
No it is not,

It’s up to our waste, presidency
Stop complaining, she says,

Its up to our necks, we are drowning,
No we are not; we are doing just fine,

We are glug glug gone,
Silly man we are not glug gurgle glug drowned,
[the point]
Being proud is one thing
Being dead proud is another.
.

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