How is the key oil pipeline for Vaca Muerta that will transport 125,000 barrels per day?

By Belén Escobar

On Tuesday, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced the inauguration of a key oil pipeline for Vaca Muerta, which will increase oil transportation capacity by up to 125,000 barrels of crude oil from the shale oil field to refineries.

The project consortium was formed by Shell, Pan American Energy, and Pluspetrol, while the construction of the pipeline was in charge of Techint-SIMA.

Thus, the initiative will benefit the activity in the extensive area with unconventional oil and gas (shale) in the province of Neuquén, in western Argentina, which has several fields in production and contracts with different operators.

HOW MUCH OIL IS THERE IN VACA MUERTA?

The field’s production is estimated to peak at 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in 2033.

“Today is a very important day for the Argentine energy sector. The inauguration of the Sierras Blancas-Allen Pipeline will increase the operators’ production evacuation capacity in the basin, which today limits the growth of scale in the projects,” the official indicated in social networks.

According to him, the work has 105 kilometers of the route between the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro: “It will allow connecting Vaca Muerta with Oldelval’s trunk pipeline and its Duplicar project and boost the basin’s export routes.”

WHAT IS VACA MUERTA?

The Argentine government defines Vaca Muerta as an unconventional oil and gas formation “world-class that is changing the country’s energy reality”.

“More than 30 local and international companies are already investing. We aim to provide Argentines with abundant, clean, and affordable energy for SMEs, industry, and transportation”, states the official governmental website.

WHAT ARE SHALE OIL AND GAS, OR UNCONVENTIONAL?

Pro Córdoba, a Cordoba agency dedicated to the promotion of exports, describes shale oil and gas as follows:

“Shale gas is a hydrocarbon in a gaseous state. This type of natural gas is extracted from deep zones where shale, lutites, or argillites are abundant.”

“The rocky interior of the shale has low permeability, which prevents its ascent to the surface, so it is necessary to fracture the rock hydraulically.”

“Shale or shale rock is a sedimentary formation that contains gas and oil.”

“It does not have sufficient permeability for hydrocarbons to be extracted by conventional methods, which makes it necessary to apply new technologies for their extraction.”

“High-pressure water injection, together with the application of proppants, allows the hydrocarbons, trapped in the formation, to flow to the surface”.

With information from Bloomberg