Drilling in the Vaca Muerta shale
Protests compound Argentina’s gas woes
Efforts to raise Vaca Muerta production face financial and strike action hurdles
Argentina’s gas producers were already struggling to meet targets pledged in the country’s new incentive scheme—dubbed Plan Gas.Ar—with capex scaled back and limited drilling activity last year. But protests in the Vaca Muerta shale basin by Argentina’s main oil and gas union are set to further slow production growth. Upstream workers are demanding better pay as a result of Argentina’s rampant inflation, while the government is struggling to meet its debts. The IMF loaned the country a record $57bn in 2018 to help balance the books, and President Alberto Fernandez has since been scrambling to renegotiate payments. And activity in the Vaca Muerta region has already been delayed, wi
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