Ricardo Ferreiro, President Exploration & Production, participó del panel Vaca Muerta en el evento organizado por la revista Forbes Argentina con foco en la industria de la energía. 

“Fortín de Piedra es el mayor yacimiento de gas en la Argentina, tiene el 1,5% de la superficie total de Vaca Muerta y produce el 14% de lo que necesita el país”. De esta manera, Ricardo Ferreiro, recién nombrado President Exploration & Production en Tecpetrol tras la salida de Horacio Marín hacia YPF, resaltó el volumen, la materialidad y la potencialidad de la operación durante el ciclo Forbes Energy Summit. Hacia el salto exportador, un evento organizado por la revista Forbes Argentina.

Si bien la formación no convencional ha demostrado su eficiencia world class y competitividad, aún está con un desarrollo menor al 10% de su capacidad. Conocer los planes de las compañías operadoras fue uno de los objetivos del panel que Ferreiro compartió con Matías Campodónico, Presidente de la petroquímica Dow Argentina, moderado por Fernando Heredia, Editor de Money & Energy en la edición local de Forbes.

“Argentina has the opportunity to make the most of a vast resource; we have enough gas to last us for the next 150 years or more,” observed Ferreiro as he outlined the promising prospects for the business. The company is a leader in the gas sector—this year, Fortín de Piedra hit a daily record of 24 million cubic meters—and is now seeing a window opening up for oil. “In the past few years, we've been actively working on projects in oil fields and have achieved positive outcomes. As a result, we are now prepared to commence drilling,” pointed out the executive.

“From the surface down, we’re on a par with the United States', as we have some highly competitive rock, and we could produce between 70,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil given the right macroeconomic conditions,” explained Ferreiro. Among the conditions needed “to make this jump up in terms of scale,” he highlighted several regulatory and infrastructure challenges that must be addressed.

Going green

Matías Campodónico, President of Dow Argentina and the Southern Region, pointed out that such a promising future must take the energy transition agenda into account. “In Argentina, there is enough gas for everyone but we also have a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This is why we have to be very smart right now,” he pointed out. “The world understands that all energy sources are needed to achieve this transition,” agreed Ferreiro, adding that, “Argentina can make a substantial contribution to decarbonization at world level.”

The main items on the agenda include increasing the volume to supply markets during the winter months, expanding the transportation system to supply Bolivia, and developing markets at regional level including exports to Chile and Brazil as well as liquefaction (LNG) projects. All of these are major milestones on the roadmap to develop Vaca Muerta’s potential.

“The world could diversify its supply sources with good products. We must take advantage of this window in a timely manner so that we can adequately capture value,” analyzed Ferreiro, adding that, “as current output levels are ensuring the supply of gas for the next two or three years, and we have to be there for that conversation.”

In terms of priorities, Campodónico highlighted the pressing need to take production to an industrial scale so that the value of each gas molecule can be multiplied, in parallel to the urgent requirement to reverse the North gas pipeline. “What we need is a normal country, but there is a social consensus about the direction that the country is taking, as well as about the sustainability debate.”

Capital availability emerged as the main variable for the future. “There’s a lot of muscle, there are many companies jockeying to make the most of the opportunity, and we only need the investments to arrive so that we can launch all the projects in our portfolio, because none of them compete with each other,” emphasized Ferreiro. Finally, at the end of the panel, he highlighted that the negative energy balance of -12 billion dollars will change next year to become a surplus of 3 billion, a significant change.