More fracking in Neuquén
British producer Harbour Energy is consolidating its position in Vaca Muerta shale oil with concrete technical progress at the San Roque block pilot in Neuquén province.
The key development is that a four-well pilot in the shale oil window—carried out in partnership with TotalEnergies as operator—confirmed commercially viable production, according to details disclosed in the company’s Half-Year Results 2025, published in August 2025, and in its November investor presentation.
In those official documents, Harbour explicitly describes the project as a “successful oil pilot at San Roque.”
The technical description emphasizes that it was a “four-well pilot project in the oil window of the Vaca Muerta shale,” meaning horizontal wells with multi-stage hydraulic stimulation (fracking) designed to test productivity in the oil window—a liquids-rich shale zone distinct from the dry gas window that dominates other parts of the formation.
While the company has kept detailed operating metrics confidential—such as initial production (IP) rates, decline curves, estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) per well, lateral length, number of fracture stages, volumes of proppant and fluids injected, or completion costs—internal reports and comments by CEO Linda Cook on Sept. 2 at the Barclays conference in New York confirm that the results demonstrated:
- Technical viability: productivity and liquids recovery sufficient to justify scaled development.
- Economic viability: a confirmed business case, aligned with Harbour’s internal return and risk criteria for maturing 2C resources into 2P reserves (proved and probable).
- Reservoir quality comparable to “some of the best U.S. shale basins at a very early stage of development,” suggesting favorable permeability, oil saturation and reservoir pressure for competitive IP rates and attractive EUR once well designs are optimized.
From conventional to unconventional
San Roque, which has mature conventional production of about 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), mainly conventional crude, had already been assessed for its unconventional potential. The pilot marks the first systematic test of the oil window and validated shale oil as a complement to Harbour’s Argentine gas portfolio, which is 93% gas, with Aguada Pichana Este contributing about 18,000 boepd of shale gas.
Advanced discussions with partners, led by TotalEnergies, and with provincial and national authorities—depending on the framework of Argentina’s large investment incentive regime (RIGI)—are aimed at securing an unconventional production license in 2026.
That would enable:
- Extended horizontal wells with longer laterals and higher density.
- More intensive fracking, with additional stages per well, higher sand and fluid volumes, and optimized fracture chemistry.
- A commercial ramp-up of shale oil, shifting the production mix toward crude, which benefits from more attractive global pricing and less local regulatory intervention.
- Synergies with Southern Energy, in which Harbour holds a 15% stake, as its floating LNG project is expected to monetize gas from 2027-2028 and free up capital to accelerate oil development.
Taken together, this positions Argentina as Harbour’s largest source of global upside. The San Roque pilot strengthens confidence in the oil window as a strategic lever, in a year when national shale oil production surpassed record levels.
The next milestone will be approval of the license and a full-field development plan. If secured in 2026, San Roque could transition from a mature conventional asset into a meaningful contributor to local shale oil output, reinforcing Harbour’s presence in the basin under long-term investment incentives.