Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 09 2020

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil
The company is currently focusing on Bajada de Palo Oeste (Photo: Vista Oil & Gas.)
Vista Oil & Gas confirms focus on Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play
LATIN-AMERICA focused oil and gas com- pany Vista Oil & Gas said last week that it was still expecting the Vaca Muerta shale play in Argentina to account for the largest share of its production growth this year, despite continued political and economic uncertainty over devel- opment of the formation.
The firm, which is based in Mexico City, said last week it hoped to see its crude oil and nat- ural gas output reach 36,000-38,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by the end of this year. This would represent a rise of at least 20% on the fig- ure of 30,000 boepd posted at the end of 2019, according to local reports.
If Vista achieves its aim, its production will average 32,000-33,000 boepd this year, up from 29,100 boepd in 2019.
Miguel Galuccio, the firm’s CEO, said dur- ing a conference call with investors last week that Vaca Muerta’s geological potential was so strong that the company still expected output to grow this year in spite of short-term hurdles. Vista is currently concentrating its efforts on the Bajada de Palo Oeste block, where the wells already drilled “rank among the best” in the Vaca Muerta play, he said.
Vista acquired a group of oil and gas assets in Argentina in 2018 from local players Pampa
Energía and Pluspetrol. This transaction made the company the fifth-largest oil producer and operator in the country, according to informa- tion posted on Vista’s website.
The majority of the firm’s assets are located in the Neuquina Basin, including 137,000 acres (554 square km) in the Vaca Muerta play, it said. Of those, a total of 54,000 acres (219 square km) are located in areas that are believed to be ripe for full-scale development.
Vaca Muerta, which is around the size of Bel- gium, contains around 308tn cubic feet (8.722tn cubic metres) of shale gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). It has the potential to boost Argentina’s gas output significantly once development is fully ramped up.
Vista, like the other companies developing Vaca Muerta fields, has shifted its focus from gas over the last year to oil, in an effort to take advantage of higher prices and greater export potential, at least in the short term.
Galuccio said he hoped that the government of President Alberto Fernández, which took office last December, would focus on promot- ing the development of Vaca Muerta once it had dealt with pressing economic issues such as debt renegotiations. ™
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