After 17 years of inactivity, the Trans-Andean gas pipeline has been reactivated. It will allow oil to be sent from Vaca Muerta to Chile. YPF started this week with the first pumping of crude oil from Puerto Hernandez, in Neuquen.
The start will be for a daily shipment of 41,000 barrels that YPF will deliver to Chilean enap. The figure is small for the numbers handled by the industry, close to $2 million a day.
The Trans-Andean gas pipeline (Otasa) crosses the Andes mountain range, in a journey of 427 kilometres. This first agreement will last 45 days and will be a sort of test. Argentina’s idea is to export gas.
“In this development process we now have almost 365 days of uninterrupted gas exports to Chile, and also crude oil exports,” according to Energy Secretary Flavia Royón.
The first phase of the gas pipeline that will connect Vaca Muerta with Buenos Aires has already finished its welding phase and the government aims to complete it by June 20th. The next phase would connect Buenos Aires with Santa Fe. Through various reinforcements or expansions, it can be connected with existing pipes reaching Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. All markets that can be recipients of Argentine gas.
The pipeline could generate savings of US$2,000 million in LNG imports, according to government estimates.
Argentina it will depend less and less on gas from Bolivia. The existing infrastructure, which is used to import, will be adapted so that you can also export. An offer process already exists to perform this task. Argentine gas could reach Brazil directly – with extensions and complementary works – from the second part of the pipeline. But there is also the possibility that it passes through Bolivia, which has already created its network to Brazil.
In addition to the trans-Andean pipeline, also Oldelval, a consortium of oil companies is in the process of expansion. Production of Vaca Muerta exceeds the capacity of Oldelval, which is already growing and expected to reach the Atlantic around 2024 and 2025. From there, it could be exported to almost everything bordering that ocean.
Although it has an equity stake in Oldelval, YPF has another pipeline of its own, which could carry 360,000 barrels, to the Punta Colorada terminal in Río Negro. There would be a marine terminal after an investment of 1,200 million dollars. He also aims for Argentine oil to watch the world.
If these works are completed, the country could do it become an energy exporterand in this way there is the possibility of earning billions of dollars.
Source: Clarin
