The making of a new 1000 km Vaca Muerta trunk gas transport pipeline to market destination points: Decree 465/19 and its bidding terms

Abstract

This article refers to the extraordinary circumstance of Argentina's holding the second largest shale gas resources in the world, at a time it has been proven that they can be rapidly exploited commercially. The sweeping changes brought by this change of paradigm for a country with declining conventional natural gas reserves in a gas dependent domestic economy require urgent infrastructure expansion to solve bottlenecks to reach domestic and international, markets, to be achieved only through stable market rules and a robust framework for a further trunk pipeline. The incoming bidding for such pipeline and its insertion in the current legal framework is described in detail, regardless of the fact that current government elections may defer the outcome, but not stop this essential infrastructure for the country's development.