Snapshot: Argentine gas exports in November

Argentina exported 9.40Mm3/d (million cubic meters per day) of gas in November, up from 8.68Mm3/d the previous month and up from 8.13Mm3/d a year earlier, according to data from watchdog Enargas.

Local producers chiefly send gas to Chile, as growing production and domestic dispatch restrictions in the Neuquén basin – along with attractive export prices – buoys interest in foreign sales. 

Exports climb over the Southern Cone's warmer months, when domestic demand in Argentina slackens. 

Uruguay is currently the country’s only other gas offtaker. An improvement in hydrological conditions in Brazil has supported stronger hydropower output and dampened demand for energy imports. The TGM Argentina-Brazil link connects to a Brazilian thermoelectric plant. 

Argentina’s federal energy department published no natural gas export authorization requests in November, down from two in October and five in September. 

National gas production was 133Mm3/d in October, with the Neuquén basin accounting for 68%, according to a report from consultancy OilProduction Consulting, founded in Chubut province. The balance was produced in the Austral basin (21%), the Golfo San Jorge basin (8%) and the Noroeste basin (3%).

Liquefaction infrastructure – if eventually built – would allow Argentina to tap gas-hungry markets in other regions.  

The Argentine government is extending 2020-24 production incentives program Plan Gas to 2028 and, in parallel, seeking to contract additional output to help fill the future 22Mm3/d first phase of the under-construction Vaca Muerta gas pipeline megaproject. As part of the process, officials outlined benefits for Plan Gas producers that also export.

NEUQUÉN PROVINCE

Seven companies exported gas from Neuquén province, home to the bulk of the Neuquén basin and the Vaca Muerta unconventionals formation, in October. The jurisdiction exported around 4.6Mm3/d, about 6% of provincial gas sales, at an average price of US$7.97/MBTU. 

The biggest players, the provincial government said in a statement, were Tecpetrol (25%), followed by Total Energies (24%), YPF (20%), Pan American Energy (18%), and Pampa Energía (7%).

The average Plan Gas price corresponding to production-extension commitments to 2028 was US$3.54/MBTU.

CHILE 

Chile accounted for 9.16Mm3/d of Argentine exports in November, with Uruguay purchasing the balance. 

Argentina exported 7.63Mm3/d to Chile via the GasAndes duct, 1.16Mm3/d via the Methanex YPF pipeline and 370,000m3/d through the Pacífico duct.

URUGUAY

Argentina piped 240,000m3/d to Uruguay via the Cruz del Sur link. State energy company Energía Argentina recently contracted 350,000m3/d to export to neighbor Uruguay from January-April, at a price of US$4.7/MBTU.