A plan for 600 wells in 25 years
Pluspetrol, an Argentine independent oil and gas producer, announced it will file for adhesion to Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) with a $12 billion plan at Bajo del Choique–La Invernada — one of the Vaca Muerta assets it acquired from ExxonMobil in December 2024.
The project, structured under the RIGI Upstream category, targets 100,000 bbl/d of production through four processing plants, crude and gas evacuation pipelines, and a drilling campaign of more than 600 wells over 25 years. It extends the shale oil frontier further north into the Neuquén Basin, Argentina's main hydrocarbon-producing region, in the Rincón de los Sauces area of Neuquén province.
The development is split into two phases. In the first, Pluspetrol will focus on the southern portion of the block, building two processing plants and the drilling and infrastructure needed to produce 50,000 bbl/d of crude and 6 MMm³/d (million cubic meters per day) of gas. In the second, comparable investments in the northern portion are expected to lift production to 100,000 bbl/d and 12 MMm³/d of gas at plateau.
"This step is an important milestone in Pluspetrol's growth, as it will allow the company to multiply its production and consolidate itself as one of the country's leading oil and gas producers," the company said in a statement obtained by Shale24.
The filing brings to four the number of RIGI Upstream projects submitted, with one more working through the administrative pipeline. The others: Tecpetrol, the Techint Group's exploration and production subsidiary, with $3 billion at Los Toldos II Este; Phoenix Global Resources, the Vaca Muerta-focused producer controlled by Swiss commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group, with $6 billion at Mata Mora; and Pampa Energía, a diversified Argentine energy company, with $4.5 billion at Rincón de Aranda — the filing still in process. Pluspetrol's $12 billion is the largest of the four.
Waiting on Duplicar Norte and VMOS
Pluspetrol's and Tecpetrol's plans have been contingent on the new Duplicar Norte crude pipeline, as Shale24 first reported. Construction of Duplicar Norte is under way; once completed, it will link the northern Vaca Muerta hub to the Allen pumping station, a pipeline hub in Río Negro province that serves as Oldelval's trunk system delivery point, and from there onward to either the Puerto Rosales terminal in Buenos Aires province — Argentina's primary Atlantic crude export terminal — or to the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur pipeline (VMOS), which begins line fill in November 2026, the first operational step toward first Atlantic shale oil exports scheduled for December 2026.
The Bajo del Choique–La Invernada concession, which has historically produced some of Argentina's most productive shale wells, is operated by Pluspetrol with a 90% working interest; Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén (GyP), Neuquén province's state oil and gas company, holds the remaining 10%.
The ExxonMobil asset purchase expanded Pluspetrol's Vaca Muerta footprint beyond its flagship La Calera field. The company reshuffled its portfolio by divesting assets to Continental Resources, the U.S. shale company run by Harold Hamm, and to GeoPark, a Latin American E&P company active in Vaca Muerta, focusing capital on its new shale oil prize in the north.