80 years of history
The second foreign member of the consortium awarded the Argentina LNG gas trunkline is Bonatti, an Italian construction firm making its first entry into Argentina.
Bonatti shares the civil works of the 527-kilometer system, which will link the Vaca Muerta formation to the Río Negro coast, with Pumpco, the U.S. pipeline contractor and MasTec subsidiary, and Contreras Hermanos, the local Argentine firm.
The award places the Parma-based company on the largest-diameter gas pipeline in Argentine history, a 48-inch line that anchors the export chain being developed by YPF, Argentina's state-controlled oil and gas company; ENI, the Italian energy company; and XRG, the international investment arm of ADNOC, Abu Dhabi's state oil company.
Based in Parma, Bonatti was founded in 1946 as a drilling and mechanical-works firm and grew over the decades into a full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the energy industry.
Across nearly 80 years, it has laid pipelines and built plants and refineries in a geography running from the Alps to the Andes and from the Libyan desert to the North Sea, with a stable presence in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Caspian region, and the Americas. Its laying capability extends to large diameters, 36 inches and above, the range into which the Argentina LNG gas trunkline falls.
A recent track record in large-diameter gas
Bonatti's recent portfolio helps gauge its profile. The company built the Zeelink, a 40-inch gas pipeline in Germany; participates in Porthos, the carbon capture and transport system at the port of Rotterdam; and is executing the Cuxtal II expansion of the Mayakan gas system in Mexico for Engie, the French utility.
In November 2025 it closed €100 million in financing to support its 2025–2029 industrial plan. Its portfolio places it among Europe's reference contractors for large-scale gas works, with a record tied to the development of Mediterranean gas infrastructure, the arena in which ENI also grew, now a partner of YPF and XRG in Argentina LNG.
A past joint venture with Sicim
There is an additional thread connecting Bonatti to Vaca Muerta's other major LNG project. The Parma firm has previously worked in a joint venture with Sicim, the fellow Italian contractor awarded construction of the Southern Energy pipeline: the two partnered, for example, on the Galsi project, the system linking Algeria with Italy.
Along the Río Negro corridor, that shared history yields a different picture: the two Italian contractors are split across the two pipelines that will run almost in parallel, Bonatti on the Argentina LNG line and Sicim on the Southern Energy line — this time as competitors.
Bonatti's entry falls within a project that YPF, ENI, and XRG are advancing to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Atlantic coast, with a first phase of 12 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) via two floating LNG units (FLNG). Defining the engineering and infrastructure contracts is the step preceding the final investment decision (FID), expected in the second half of 2026.
From that point, Bonatti, together with Pumpco and Contreras Hermanos, will take on construction of the largest-diameter gas pipeline in Argentine history, the project with which the Parma company inaugurates its presence in the country.