Vaca Muerta Blocks Draw Bids From PCR, GeoPark and Central Puerto

Argentina · Energy

Neuquén has opened the money envelopes on eight exploration areas, and the provisional leaders are now visible. One bidder is an electricity company that has just cashed out of a silver mine.

Vaca Muerta blocks in Argentina’s Neuquén province drew sealed bids this month from ten or eleven companies. The provincial oil company opened those envelopes in September 2026.

Vaca Muerta is an unconventional shale oil and gas formation in the Neuquén Basin, in Argentine Patagonia. Unconventional crude reached 70% of Argentina’s total oil output by the middle of 2026.

Who is running the tender

The seller is Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén, or GyP, the province’s state oil company. The round is designated Ronda 1/2026.

Fifteen areas were offered. Eight drew bids and seven were left vacant, with ten to eleven companies taking part.

Technical envelopes were opened first, and the economic offers, known as Sobres B, followed in September 2026. GyP is now checking technical consistency and financial solvency.

It will then send a pre-award report to its board, which resolves the award.

No award date has been announced. A second round focused on gas, Ronda 2, is due to be published in November 2026.

That round is aligned with the province’s plan to feed liquefied natural gas projects on the Río Negro coast. Bids in the current round are scored on four weighted variables.

Those are the exploratory investment commitment, a bonus paid to the provincial treasury, the royalty rate, and GyP’s carried stake. The royalty starts at 15% and can move between 12% and 18%.

GyP’s carried participation in each area has a floor of 10%. Across the eight Vaca Muerta blocks, the best proposals commit over US$230 million in exploration and over US$180 million in bonuses.

Who is ahead, and what they already own

The provisional ranking published by vacamuerta.ar puts PCR top on three areas: Águila Mora Noreste, La Tropilla I and Santo Domingo II.

PCR is Petroquímica Comodoro Rivadavia, a long-standing conventional producer with no prior shale operations. This tender would be its entry into unconventional acreage in the formation.

It raised a US$400 million bond in July 2026, eight-year paper with an 8.5% coupon. GeoPark leads on Corralera Noreste with the highest score in the round, 12,241.

GeoPark recently bought Loma Jarillosa Este and Puesto Silva Oeste, holding 36.7 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2P reserves. It projects 5,000 to 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by the end of 2026.

Central Puerto’s vehicle Patagonia Energy leads on Corralera Noroeste with 4,878, narrowly ahead of GeoPark according to Forbes Argentina. Central Puerto is an Argentine electricity generator.

It already operates Aguada del Chivato and Aguada Bocarey in the basin, both conventional fields. That is what makes these Vaca Muerta blocks a change of direction for a power company.

Continental Resources bid with Phoenix Global Resources on six areas and leads on Corralera Sur. Continental bought 90% of Los Toldos II Oeste from Pluspetrol and is securing 13% of Loma Guadalosa.

Phoenix produces 25,000 to 26,000 barrels a day and operates Mata Mora with a second rig. The venture announced a US$6 billion investment programme aimed at Argentina’s RIGI incentive framework.

Doug Lawler, chief executive of Continental Resources, told Forbes Argentina that Argentina is the company’s first priority. He added that Venezuela had come up repeatedly in its meetings.

Two smaller names lead elsewhere. JPM Energía tops Pampa de las Yeguas II NE, and Selva María Oil was the sole bidder on Chasquivil Sur.

This round is predominantly shale oil, and the November round targets gas. No per-area resource or reserve estimates have been published.

A provincial source told Runrún Energético the aim is a long-term partner, not the best sale price.

Why a power company is selling silver

On 16 September 2026 Central Puerto announced the sale of its entire holding in AbraSilver Resource Corp., a Canadian miner. iProfesional put the proceeds at US$163.1 million.

Infobae reported the price as CAD 228.4 million, against iProfesional’s US$163.1 million. Neither outlet published the exchange rate linking the two figures.

The sources also word the stake differently. Infobae says Central Puerto sold 100% of its shareholding; iProfesional puts that holding at 9.9% of AbraSilver.

Central Puerto bought in during April 2024 for CAD 35.7 million, about US$25.3 million, becoming AbraSilver’s largest shareholder. The buyer this time has not been disclosed.

The board said the shareholding had ceased to be strategic in character. Proceeds fund an extraordinary cash dividend of about US$164 million, payable 25 September 2026.

Central Puerto has published nothing further about the use of the money. No closing date for the transaction was given.

AbraSilver’s asset is Diablillos, a silver and gold project in the Puna region of northwestern Argentina.

The gas that has not left yet

YPF, Argentina’s state-controlled oil company, is close to signing two or three offtake contracts for gas from the formation. The buyers have not been named.

Each prospective contract covers between 0.5 and 1.5 million tonnes a year. The constraint is not a conventional export pipeline to a neighbouring country.

It is the Argentina LNG project: a dedicated 527-kilometre pipeline from Neuquén to the coast, plus two floating liquefaction vessels. They will sit off the Golfo San Matías coast in Río Negro.

Minimum liquefaction capacity is 12 million tonnes a year, scalable to 18 million. The capacity of the pipeline itself has not been published.

A final investment decision is scheduled for November 2026, the same month as the second tender round. Negotiations were being held at the Gastech 2026 conference in Bangkok.

Horacio Marín, YPF’s president and chief executive, said the most intense part now begins: four years of work.

What it means in practice

The areas on offer are exploration acreage, not producing assets. The Vaca Muerta blocks therefore absorb money years before any barrel is sold.

Argentine energy exports reached US$6.594 billion in the first half of 2026, up 42.5% on the year. Crude accounted for US$4.693 billion of that, or 71.2%.

Marín expects Argentina to export one million barrels a day around 2033 or 2034. Between that and today sit a tender with no award date and a decision due in November.

More: Argentina coverage, every day from The Rio Times.

What is Vaca Muerta?

It is an unconventional shale oil and gas formation in the Neuquén Basin, in Argentine Patagonia. Oil is produced there by hydraulic fracturing rather than from conventional reservoirs. In June 2026 the Neuquén Basin pumped 715,105 barrels a day, 79% of Argentina’s national output. The formation itself accounts for roughly 70% of that basin total, and production has grown about 36% a year.

What is GyP?

Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén, known as GyP, is the oil company owned by Neuquén province. It runs the tender rounds that allocate exploration areas to private operators. It also takes a carried participation in each area awarded, with a floor of 10%, so it keeps a stake in whatever is found. Its board resolves the final award after a pre-award report.

What is Central Puerto?

Central Puerto is an Argentine electricity generator that has been extending into upstream energy. It already operates two conventional oil and gas fields in the Neuquén Basin, Aguada del Chivato and Aguada Bocarey. Through a vehicle called Patagonia Energy it is now bidding for shale acreage. In April 2024 it had also bought into a Canadian silver and gold developer, a stake it has now sold.

What is the Argentina LNG project?

It is the export route for gas that currently has nowhere to go. The plan combines a dedicated 527-kilometre pipeline from Neuquén to the Atlantic coast with two floating liquefaction vessels. Those vessels would sit off the Golfo San Matías coast in Río Negro province. Minimum capacity is 12 million tonnes a year, scalable to 18 million, with a final investment decision due in November 2026.

Sources: Runrún Energético on the opening of the economic offers, vacamuerta.ar on the provisional ranking by area, Forbes Argentina on the four leading candidates, Mejor Energía on what each bidder already holds, Estaciones on the eight areas bid for and seven left vacant, iProfesional on the AbraSilver sale and the dividend, Infobae on the board’s rationale for the disposal, El Cronista on the 2024 entry price, LCR Diario Digital on YPF’s gas offtake talks, Infobae on Argentine shale production and energy exports

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