The government began examining an expansion of the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) for all new projects in Vaca Muerta This is leading to an increase in unconventional oil and gas production.
This is what he expected Daniel GonzálezMinister for Energy and Mines Coordination, addressing around 1,000 people who gathered at the Sheraton Hotel for Oil Day, including key energy sector CEOs and officials.
The analysis of the expansion of the RIGI to all hydrocarbon exploration and production activities (upstream) It was a request from the governor of Neuquén, Rolando Figueroato the Minister of Economy Luis Caputo, who promised to think about it. And this comes after the government announced the elimination of export duties (withholdings) on conventional production in Chubut and Santa Cruz.
Likewise, the nation gives youanother signal to another Patagonian province and seeks to guarantee the votes of its deputies and senators for the 2026 budget and labor reform in Congress.
In 2025 The price of a barrel of oil fell by more than 17% End to end and now it’s around $60 what adjusted profit margins in Vaca Muerta and returned almost unprofitable to some mature conventional fields.
In addition, during much of the year The government retained debt for subsidies to gas producerswhich led to financial suffocation of companies. González has since received repeated complaints from oil companies on the issue Economy delayed payments to maintain budget surplus in each month.
The RIGI was originally designed for large mining export projects – copper, lithium and gold – and energy, primarily liquefied natural gas (LNG). The rules encourage infrastructure associated with energy and gas fields for export, typically “dry gas” — containing little oil and other associated liquids.
The expansion of the regime will soon reach “wet gas,” the Vaca Muerta window where methane gas leaks along with crude oil and other liquids such as ethane, propane, butane and pentanes, which are of high value to the petrochemical industry.
Over there, YPF will try to persuade its partners ENI (Italy) and XRG (United Arab Emirates) to settle for purchasing fields from Pluspetrolwhich will bring economic sense and profitability to the LNG project.
However, Expanding RIGI to oil-only projects does not solve or eliminate major bottlenecks that are currently slowing developmentas well as the associated infrastructure. The Vaca Muerta Oil Sur (VMOS) pipeline is one of the examples that have benefited from the regime to solve the problem of crude oil evacuation from the Neuquén Basin.
Major oil projects include those already underway and preparing to apply to RIGI When the government opens the door for them are Los Toldos II Este, from Tecpetrol -the olive branch of Techint- and Rincón de Aranda, from Pampa energy. The latter applied to join the regime five months ago, but only for the infrastructure part and has not yet received approval. They promise to add 120,000 barrels of crude oil per day between both projects, almost 15% more than the country’s current production.
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