Pluspetrol - Bajo del Choique / La Invernada

The government of Neuquén reports that the Comité Evaluador approved the project's admission to the RIGI: USD 12,400 million over 25 years, four processing plants, evacuation pipelines, more than 620 horizontal wells with three dedicated drilling rigs and an average of 41 wells a year, to exceed 100,000 barrels a day. The Minister of Economy publishes on the same day USD 12,240 million, 620 wells and more than 2,300 jobs across construction and operation, and the provincial release speaks of more than 4,000 people over the next year and a half.

The trade press reports that the operator replaced the idea of a central plant with modules of about 25,000 barrels a day each, and that the next module is scheduled for April 2027.

Pluspetrol, which operates the area with 90 % against Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén's 10 %, announces it will file the RIGI adhesion application: USD 12 billion, four processing plants, more than 600 wells and a declared peak of 100,000 barrels a day and 12 million cubic metres of gas a day, over 25 years in two stages.

Public environmental hearing for the project at the Kacike hall in Rincón de los Sauces, at 12:30, under article 31 of provincial Ley 1875, with the applicant identified as Pluspetrol Cuenca Neuquina SRL. The observations were added to the file for technical assessment.

The operator's country manager says the block's first modular plant is about to be finished: «In the next thirty days we will finish EPF 1, which will add another 25,000 barrels of treatment capacity», within a modular approach «with 25,000-barrel plants to scale alongside the drilling plan».

Neuquén's Official Gazette publishes the notice calling the environmental public hearing: it «will be held on March 31, 2026 at 12:30, at Salón de Eventos Kacike, on the corner of República Argentina and Juan José Castelli in the town of Rincón de los Sauces». The file is EX-2026-00234438- -NEU-SARN#MTUR and the Register of Speakers closes 5 business days before the event.

The «Desarrollo de Bajo del Choique» global environmental impact study is signed, prepared by Geólogos Asociados S.A. It is the document that measures the works: 150 unconventional wells on 29 pads across 25 locations, 50 sites, two treatment plants, 215,516 metres of pipelines in 129 segments and 61,710 metres of roads.

Works on the Bajo del Choique Nordeste oil pipeline are completed: 42 km for a maximum flow of 60,000 barrels per day, API 5L standard, with monitoring fibre optics and shut-off valves. It was built by Víctor Contreras S.A. and reaches the Auca Mahuida station. An earlier article from the same outlet, from June 2024, described it as 43 km and 12 inches, with two valve stations, and warned that in the initial phase the flow was limited to 12,000 barrels per day by the pumps and the 6-inch sections prob.

Pluspetrol and Weatherford agree the transfer of the fracturing services division: «the fracturing set and the main assets tied to its operation, the associated operating bases, and the workforce» verif. With that division Pluspetrol builds its own services company, SPI, which starts working in May 2025 and that year performs all its fracturing stages for the group prob.

Decreto 1512/2024 approves the agreement between Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén and ExxonMobil Exploration Argentina over the change of control of the area, with a payment to the Province of «ONE HUNDRED MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS (USD 100,000,000)» for the contractual readjustment, and exempts that agreement from stamp duty.

Decreto 2444/15 grants Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén the unconventional exploitation concession over the unified La Invernada – Bajo del Choique area, covering 400.27 km², for 35 years from the decree, with an initial five-year pilot plan of USD 229 million between 2016 and 2019. It envisages a development of 556 horizontal wells for about USD 13,900 million, and sets the joint venture split at 10% for Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén and 90% for ExxonMobil.