Decree 447/26 authorizes Pan American Energy to transfer 13% of its working interest to Continental Resources Argentina S.A.U. The final structure leaves PAE with 52% as operator, Continental with 13%, and Tango Energy with 35%. It is the first formal closing of the January framework, ahead of pending approvals on three Neuquén blocks.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum convened a 45-minute call with the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and Continental Resources. The U.S. rig count has fallen to 543, the Permian is holding at 242, and independent producers plan flat 2026 capital expenditure. For Argentina, the read-through runs through capital: when price-drilling elasticity breaks in the dominant basin, rotation into Vaca Muerta stops being an optional bet.
Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén will publish tender documents in May for 15 blocks selected from its reserved-area portfolio, with formal opening set for August 19. A request from Continental Resources at Bank of America's Argentina Week accelerated the original schedule by two years and aligns with the early startup of Oldelval's Duplicar Norte pipeline, which unlocks the northern hub.
The company has sold its operating stakes in Los Toldos I Sur and Pampa de las Yeguas I to a U.S.-backed buyer — completing a 15-month portfolio reset that began the day it closed its $1.75 billion acquisition of ExxonMobil's Argentine subsidiary in December 2024
In January, he halted drilling in North Dakota for the first time in 30 years. Weeks later, he traveled to New York to deepen his position in Argentina’s Neuquén Basin. “The rock doesn’t know which country it’s in,” said the businessman and adviser to Donald Trump.
The government of President Javier Milei is rolling out a multidimensional strategy to turn energy, mining amake itnd hydrocarbons into the new growth engines of an Argentina that aspires to global power status. The new Incentive Regime for Large Investments, known as RIGI, the privatization agenda and market-based pricing are the main tools being used to achieve that goal.
The company had agreed to purchase 90% of the Los Toldos II Oeste block from Pluspetrol. The remaining 10% will remain under the control of Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén, the provincial company participating as a partner.
In his previous address, Milei emphasized economic freedom and tax reforms as tools to fight poverty, casting the state as a problematic actor. This time, the Argentine president will focus on deregulation of the energy sector and Argentina’s role as an LNG supplier from the Vaca Muerta shale.
