VMOS has capped a second storage tank at its Punta Colorada terminal, clearing the technical floor that the consortium's official schedule set for Argentina's first cargo of Vaca Muerta crude in December: two operational tanks at the Atlantic end and one mooring buoy in operation.
The consortium, formally VMOS S.A., is building Argentina's first dedicated crude export pipeline for the Neuquén Basin's Vaca Muerta shale play. Completion of the aluminum geodesic dome over tank TK401 on Friday closes the second of six storage tanks planned for the Atlantic end of the project, in a sequence that began in mid-April with the capping of TK404. With the pipeline more than 60% complete, the figure that matters is less the headline progress percentage than the alignment between the pace of tank construction and the official timetable.
Three weeks ago, on April 22, Gustavo Gallino, president of the VMOS consortium and vice president for infrastructure at YPF, Argentina's state-controlled oil and gas company, described the project's status in two operational shorthands: the Allen pumping and storage station was "near mechanical completion," and "the trunk pipeline is practically finished." With the onshore chain effectively closed, the Atlantic end was what remained to synchronize. Punta Colorada has just delivered the second roof.
Gallino had laid out the exact roadmap in March: the first export shipment in December 2026 requires "at least two storage tanks and one mooring buoy in operation." With TK404 capped in April and TK401 closed on Friday, the consortium has cleared the first requirement of that operational floor.
The Threshold Arithmetic
Each Punta Colorada tank stands 38 meters tall, measures 82 meters in diameter and holds 120,000 m³ of crude — the largest tanks built in Argentina, more than double the next-largest at 55,000 m³.
The roof is a 57-tonne aluminum geodesic structure assembled with 30,000 bolts, built using the Cantoni system: top-down assembly with hydraulic lifting, which compresses the timeline relative to conventional erection. The roof installed over the TK AG 007 tank at the Allen headworks, executed on April 8, required a 600-tonne crane and 32 support points.
The interval between the first and second Atlantic-terminal roofs (TK404 in mid-April, TK401 on May 9) marks a cadence of roughly 25 days per tank. If the sequence holds, the third roof would land in June and the fourth in July, leaving margin for hydrostatic testing (14 days of controlled filling per unit, per the procedure applied at Allen) and tie-in to the pumping network before the December first shipment.
The Allen headworks already carries one capped dome over the TK AG 007 tank (70,000 m³ capacity), with its hydrostatic test completed in March. The onshore chain (Allen pumping, the 437-kilometer 30-inch trunk pipeline, two receiving tanks at Punta Colorada) is in place. Only the marine end remains.
Evacuation capacity also remains tight in the months ahead. Oldelval, the Vaca Muerta crude pipeline operator, has already completed its Duplicar expansion, taking the Loma Campana–Allen–Bahía Blanca route to 540,000 bbl/d, and is preparing Duplicar Norte (220,000 bbl/d by March 2027) as a bridge until VMOS comes online. If Vaca Muerta output tops 770,000 bbl/d before December, the system will require additional works to sustain the ramp-up.
What Remains Before December
The official schedule lists three milestones still pending before the first cargo.
The first mooring buoy is due to arrive in September and will open offshore operations in the Golfo San Matías in Río Negro province, a deepwater gulf suited to loading VLCCs and mooring floating units. The contract for installing the submarine infrastructure was awarded to Norway's DOF, the offshore vessel and subsea services contractor. The second buoy is deferred to later phases.
The second pending element is hydrostatic testing at Punta Colorada, the mandatory tank-fill and leak-check procedure that can only run once roofs are in place. The third is commissioning of the two intermediate pumping stations, Station 2 (Santa Rosa) and Station 3 (at kilometer 349 of the pipeline route), where construction began in the first quarter.
On financing, the $2 billion syndicated loan extended by a consortium led by Citi, Deutsche Bank, Itaú, JP Morgan and Santander, alongside 14 additional international banks and institutional investors, covers about two-thirds of the $3 billion total investment. The project is registered under Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI). Initial dispatch capacity in December will be 180,000 bbl/d, scaling to 390,000 bbl/d by mid-2027 and full commercial operation of 550,000 bbl/d by July 2027.
The Public Clock and the Technical Clock
Friday's VMOS statement introduced a new formulation: "Argentina's export goal for 2027."
Until now, the consortium's official communications had anchored the horizon at "end of 2026." These are two distinct timelines on the same project: December 2026 inaugurates the first cargo under an early start-up regime, the "at least two tanks and one mooring buoy" threshold. July 2027 marks the start of full commercial operation, under the terms originally agreed when the consortium was constituted in December 2024. Full commercial operation arrives with six tanks, two mooring buoys, and four pumping stations.
In September 2025, Gustavo Chaab, CEO of VMOS, told S&P Global Commodity Insights that the consortium was confident of meeting its timetable and even expected to run ahead of schedule. Eight months later, with the trunk pipeline practically complete and two roofs closed at Punta Colorada, that projection has material backing. The consortium's next test is no longer one of engineering. It is logistical.