In a world where some commentators speculate that there is a glut of energy and distillate products as a result of high oil prices, sliding China demand and a looming global recession, Argentina will take the under: as La Nacion reports, on Wednesday refiners and retailers hiked prices between 7.6% and 9.6%, amid what is shaping up as a historic energy crisis.
In a surprise development, there are indications that the economically strife-torn country of Argentina will emerge as a major regional energy player. The exploitation of the 7.5 million Vaca Muerta shale formation has delivered an unconventional hydrocarbon boom for Argentina, a fiscally fragile nation once dependent on oil and gas imports.
Crude oil production from Argentina’s burgeoning shale patch, Vaca Muerta, could surge in the coming years and top 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the decade – but only if takeaway capacity and rig availability do not limit growth.
Argentina, which with a 2022 gross domestic product of $632 million is Latin America’s third-largest economy, is once again in the midst of a deep economic crisis that emerged during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
In January this year, the Federal Court of Appeals in Mar del Plata dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by several environmentalist organizations and the mayor of the coastal resort city against an offshore oil and gas exploration project.
Argentina is the home of the second-largest shale formation in the world, containing an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil and 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is also one of the most troubled economies in the world, with crises more or less now chronic.