Study of Potentials and Challenges in Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry: An Argentinian Case Study

The aim of this paper is to analyse literature studies towards the potential of Vaca Muerta Field in the Neuquén Basin, its current development situation and the country’s and Oil & Gas Industry background. Argentina is the second largest country in South America, which highly depends on its service and agricultural industries, been one of the major exporters of beef and soybean products. Strongly dependent on hydrocarbons, which account for 86.1% of its energy consumption, the country lost energy self-sufficiency in 2007, when it became a net importer of oil and gas. Concerns around the world about future shortages of energy were partially alleviated by the developments of commercially feasible techniques to extract oil and gas from unconventional resources, which are hard to extract due to the low porosity of the generating rock. Argentina turned to be the third and fourth larger holder of technically recoverable unconventional gas and oil respectively, mainly in the Neuquén Basin, were the second largest unconventional formation worldwide is located: Vaca Muerta is considered a world class resource, especially for its size, hydrocarbons content and thickness. It has been developed for seven years, achieving increasing production of oil and gas and improvements regarding costs, time and resources invested. As a conclusion, Argentina has vast and high-quality hydrocarbon reserves, what represents a huge opportunity for the country to recover energy self-sufficiency and its exporter position. New technologies and techniques are improving times and costs involved in the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons in the country. In addition, the new government is taking action to improve reliability and encourage investments. All these should enhance Vaca Muerta’s development.