Vaca Muerta’s well productivity review: Nestor Kirchner pipeline to encourage additional gas production

Asset performance in Argentina's most important play keeps improving. This is driven by higher well productivity and increasingly sophisticated well designs. We assess lateral length and proppant trends for the key projects and operators. Large growth expectations for the Vaca Muerta remains. The recently planned Nestor Kirchner natural gas pipeline has strong economic consensus among government and industry. The project adds important evacuation capacity for the play. The main uncertainty at present is related to the date for completion of the pipeline. Macroeconomic issues are also persistent in Argentina. Increasing levels of inflation combined with a slower adjustment of the official exchange rate translates into higher costs for oil and gas operations.