Energy Policy
Argentina will not extend Plan Gas, Secretary of Energy María Tettamanti said on Tuesday, ruling out any renewal of a program whose contracts expire on Dec. 31, 2028.
Tettamanti spoke at the 4th Natural Gas and LNG Conference 2026, held at the Techint Auditorium in Buenos Aires, where she returned to a decision the industry has been tracking closely for months and left no room for interpretation. Plan Gas, Argentina's government gas supply program, was launched in 2020.
"On this last point, I want to be clear: we are not going to extend Plan Gas. It is essential that the private sector regain the practice of negotiating and contracting that it developed during the 1990s," she said.
The replacement, she explained, will be contracts negotiated between private parties. "Distributors, industries and generators must understand that the local gas market will be developed through private contracts. We are working on regulatory changes to ensure that contracts negotiated competitively and transparently are recognized in the supply scheme," she added.
Those changes, she said, will pursue two goals: allowing distributors to pass through to consumers the cost of the gas they contract, and giving producers performance guarantees so they can plan their output. Part of that path already has a legal basis. Law 27,828, published in October, introduced the pass-through to tariffs of gas costs that result from competitive procurement processes.
For Tettamanti, the underlying problem is one of habits. "For years, state intervention not only distorted price signals and tariffs, but also discouraged the private sector from actively participating in negotiations. That dynamic needs to be restored: negotiating, competing, seeking prices and guaranteeing supply at the lowest possible cost," she said. It is the same line she set out in June, when she urged the industry to "get in the game" in marketing gas for the winter.
The market started moving ahead of the expiry. In October, Pampa Energía, a diversified Argentine energy company, bought 6 million cubic meters per day (MMm³/d) of gas from the Neuquén Basin, Argentina's main hydrocarbon-producing region, through the Electronic Gas Market (MEGSA). The purchase was split into three tranches running through 2035, at $2.25 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at the entry point to the transportation system, the company reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Industry Forums Now Talk About Projects and Investment, Tettamanti Says
Tettamanti opened her presentation with a comparison. A few years ago, she recalled, presentations at industry gatherings revolved around companies' difficulties in growing and the limitations of the rules of the game. Today, panels discuss construction, investments and projects.
"The resources of Vaca Muerta were always there, and the companies and business leaders are practically the same. What changed was the context," she said, referring to the Neuquén Basin shale formation, one of the world's largest shale plays. She said that "the role of the state is to set the rules of the game and respect them," an idea she had already developed in the opening interview of the Shale24 + Santander Energy Summit, and added: "It is not true that companies don't want to invest. They do so when the right conditions exist." According to the secretary, companies stop investing when their profits are expropriated, when rules are unpredictable or when the state intervenes in matters that belong to the private sector.
She also brought oil into her review. According to Tettamanti, Argentina is moving toward self-sufficiency in crude and will soon have more refined products, such as diesel, thanks to refiners' investments to improve efficiency and expand capacity. In an international scenario marked by conflicts and fuel supply problems, the country may feel price swings, but it has the volumes it needs to supply itself.
Two laws explain the companies' response, in her view. The first is the Bases Law, a sweeping reform package promoted by President Javier Milei, which changed the goal of energy policy from self-sufficiency to maximizing the rent from resources, with the domestic market guaranteed. The second is Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), which, she said, "created a regulatory framework similar to that of a normal country." The number of projects submitted and approved in oil and gas, industry and infrastructure, she argued, shows companies' interest. "We cannot waste this opportunity," she said.
Tariffs Now Adjust Every Month and Subsidies Have Become Targeted
On tariffs, Tettamanti acknowledged that "although we were unable to reach the necessary tariff level in a single adjustment, we are moving forward gradually and meeting the planned schedule." Adjustments moved from twice a year to monthly, which, she explained, gives companies predictability over their revenues.
"Prices are one of the most important signals in the economy," she said, distinguishing between the value the producer receives and who bears that cost. Along those lines, she recalled that across-the-board subsidies were eliminated and replaced with targeted assistance under the new regime. She also cited the reform of the Cold Zone Regime (Régimen de Zona Fría), a scheme of gas bill discounts for households in colder regions, which she said eliminated blanket benefits that had no technical justification linked to each region's climate. She admitted, however, that work remains to normalize the gas market.
Tettamanti Sees Market Development as the Next Challenge for Gas
The major challenge, for the secretary, is developing markets, both for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and at home. To do that, she considers transportation expansions essential, pointing to projects by the country's two gas transmission companies, Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS) and Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN). "TGS has a private-initiative project that is at an advanced stage, while TGN is working on another proposal," she said.
The first is the expansion of the Perito Moreno pipeline (formerly known as Néstor Kirchner), which will add 14 MMm³/d of capacity. The second is the Manuel Belgrano pipeline, which will link Tratayén, Neuquén province, with La Carlota, Córdoba province. The secretary said she expects new initiatives to carry gas to consumption centers and to neighboring countries.
"We have major challenges ahead. The resources are there and the rules are there. Now we must move forward with developing the domestic gas market and creating the conditions for it to grow," Tettamanti concluded.