Patagonia: the challenges of the pipeline to export Vaca Muerta oil

A new pipeline, planned to take the production of Vaca Muerta through the Atlantic Ocean – from Neuquén, to the Gulf of San Matías, in Río Negro – has an expected investment of 2,000 million dollars and would be completed in the year 2025.La initiative seeks to build a pipeline to transport Vaca Muerta oil from Añelo, in the province of Neuquén, to the south, crossing the entire province of Río Negro, to flow into the sea, after a journey of 600 kilometers. The immediate objective is to begin to reverse the deficit in energy matters, considering that the import of energy is one of the main factors that explain the outflow of dollars from the country, dollars that are scarce in Argentina today. The characteristics of the project will be discussed in a hearing that takes place at this time in Sierra Grande, where the project developed by YPF and its eventual environmental impact will be analyzed. The project includes both an oil pipeline and the construction of a port to export crude oil, which would be located in Punta Colorada, in Río Negro.Several environmental organizations reject the project, including Greenpeace Argentina, Wildlife Conservation Society Argentina, Global Penguin Society and the Whale Conservation Institute (ICB), among others. In Sierra Grande, the closest town to where the port would be located, located 35 kilometers from the chosen site, the population is torn between the rejection of the initiative for environmental issues and the hope that it will bring economic development to its population. This is the location chosen for the public hearing debate, where both the promoters and the detractors of the project are summoned to expose. Sierra Grande lived decades of splendor in the 60s of the last century with an iron deposit, but the closure of the mine ended prosperity, which some now imagine can return with the oil export port. The construction of the pipeline will imply the need for strong infrastructure investments in the area, from housing, to the improvement of routes and roads and connectivity in telephony and Internet.Al defend the initiative, YPF explained that Punta Colorada will be the largest oil exporting port in the country, with a capacity to transport 60,000 cubic meters per day, equivalent to 372,000 barrels of crude oil. In this sense, it was explained that the planned capacity will be much higher than that currently available to the Valle Pipeline System (Oldelval), which connects Vaca Muerta with Puerto Rosales, in Bahía Blanca, which transports about 36,000 cubic meters per day. In labor matters, it is expected to hire about 1,000 people directly and another 3,000 indirectly, in addition to hundreds of suppliers. From 2025, a ship could be loaded with crude oil every five days with a capacity of 390,000 cubic meters, which at an annual level could add a total volume of 25 million cubic meters, equivalent to 155 million barrels of oil. The project also plans to build 20 reserve tanks on an area of 250 coastal hectares, with a storage capacity of 1 million cubic meters, equivalent to 6.2 million barrels.

Original source in Spanish