2025 Production Overview
Argentina’s energy industry wrapped up 2025 on an exceptional note, consolidating a paradigm shift that positions the country as a strategic player in the global hydrocarbons market.
According to the latest statistical indicators, including December data, national oil production reached a historic 878,800 barrels per day (b/d) in 2025, marking a robust 14.8% year-on-year increase.
This represents more than a 66% expansion compared with pre-pandemic 2020 levels, demonstrating a resilience and technical scale comparable to other world-class basins.
Operational efficiency in unconventional fields drove this growth, with shale formations now accounting for 67.5% of the country’s total output, effectively displacing declining conventional basins.
Neuquén Basin Shows No Limits
At the heart of this revolution is Vaca Muerta. The Neuquén formation showed remarkable vitality, contributing 589,200 b/d of oil—a 31.8% increase from the previous year.
This momentum reflects an aggressive drilling and completion campaign that optimized start-up times and productivity per well.
In natural gas, the success story continues with total production of 148.6 million cubic meters per day (MMm³/d), where unconventional gas already dominates 67.9% of national supply.
December’s operational leap in Vaca Muerta’s gas output stands out, rising 13.3% from the previous month to 72.6 MMm³/d—a technically agile response to meet both domestic demand and regional export commitments.
The technical evolution is evident in historical productivity trends. In 2021, the average unconventional oil well produced 168.5 b/d; by the end of 2024, that average had climbed to 394.9 b/d, nearly tripling operational capacity in just three years.
Sustained growth validates the multi-million-dollar investments in transport infrastructure and processing plants. Argentina’s energy sector is not only producing more resources but doing so with technical sophistication that sustains an upward learning curve, ensuring the country is not just a geological promise but a high-impact exporter in the trade balance.
Looking ahead to 2026, the outlook is grounded in hard data. With unconventional oil growing at 31% annually and gas rising 18.3% in the flagship basin, Argentina is sending a clear message to international markets: the country has the scale, technology, and execution speed to become a reference energy hub for the Southern Cone and the world.