The government of Argentina has officially opened a tender for a new gas pipeline from the Vaca Muerta shale gas field (in the Neuquén province) to Salliqueló, Greater Buenos Aires and the Litoral area. The gas pipeline project will stretch over 570 km and will have a capacity of 15 mcm/d (nearly 5.5 bcm/year) in its first stage. It could be expanded in successive phases to 40 mcm/d (14.6 bcm/year). The construction of the first stage of the project should be completed by mid-2021 and the new gas pipeline will replace LNG imports at the Escobar port.
Shale gas production from Vaca Muerta has increased steadily in the last two years, doubling in the last 12 months. The gas transmission network thus needs to be expanded to handle additional gas production volumes and transport them to large consuming areas such as the area between Greater Buenos Aires and Rosario. Argentina bets on the Vaca Muerta field to improve domestic energy supply and begin natural gas exports. The country's energy trade balance went from a US$6.1bn surplus in 2006 to a US$6.9bn deficit in 2013; the deficit was cut to US$2.3bn in 2018 and is expected to close to balance in 2019.
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