Argentina has granted the first authorizations to oil companies to begin exporting natural gas to Brazil from the massive Vaca Muerta unconventional hydrocarbon formation, according to official sources.
The Argentine government authorized Total Austral, a subsidiary of the French group TotalEnergies, to sell up to one million cubic meters of gas per day to Matrix Energy Participacoes.
It also granted permission to Tecpetrol, part of the Argentine Techint group, to sell up to 1.5 million cubic meters of gas per day to MGAS Comercializadora de Gas Natural.
Meanwhile, the authorization requested by Pan American Energy (PAE, co-owned by Bridas Corporation and British Petroleum) to sell 500,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day to one of its subsidiaries in Brazil is still pending.
These shipments will be possible thanks to the reversal of the flow direction of the Northern Gas Pipeline, which will be completed shortly and until now has allowed Argentina to import gas from Bolivia.
With the reversal completed, Argentina will be able to send gas from Vaca Muerta, centered in the southwestern Argentine province of Neuquén, to Bolivia and from there, using that country’s pipelines, to Brazil.
The Neuquén government stated that there are projects to export around 34 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Brazil from Vaca Muerta, the world's second-largest reserve of unconventional gas and the fourth-largest of unconventional oil.
Of this total projected export, about 19 million cubic meters per day are destined for São Paulo and its industrial belt, while another 15 million will go to Rio Grande do Sul.
