Vaca Muerta Oleoducto Sur (VMOS)
437 km, 30-inch export pipeline between Allen and Punta Colorada, with a marine terminal of six tanks and two monobuoys six kilometres offshore, in the San Matias Gulf. It takes Vaca Muerta crude out through the Atlantic, without going through Buenos Aires or Chile. The resolution that approved it under RIGI recognises a base capacity of 377,400 barrels per day; the consortium tells the market it starts at around 180,000 and reaches 550,000 in the second half of 2027. Works were 80% complete in July 2026 and the first export is expected in early 2027.
The projectwhat it is, the route, the owners, the works and the contractors
What it is and why it exists
A 437-kilometre pipeline carrying Vaca Muerta crude from Allen to the sea at Punta Colorada, and a terminal where vessels load six kilometres offshore. It was built by the nine oil companies that will then use it: they put up the money, signed the transport commitment and created a company, VMOS S.A., which owns the pipeline and does not produce oil.
Vaca Muerta produces more crude than it can move out. The existing pipelines run to Bahía Blanca and to Chile, and they hit their ceiling. Without a new outlet to the Atlantic, production stalls even with wells drilled: the surplus cannot be sold. That is why the producers themselves are paying for the pipeline, and why they committed 490,000 barrels a day firm before the pipe existed — they pay for the capacity whether they use it or not, and that commitment is what allowed VMOS to secure a USD 2,000 million loan.
Where it runs and how much it can move
437 kilometres between Allen and Punta Colorada, both ends within Río Negro. Vaca Muerta crude reaches Allen through other pipelines that are not part of this project verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
30 inches verif · May 26, 2025 ↗
Punta Colorada, in the municipality of Sierra Grande, on the San Matías Gulf. Vessels are loaded at two single-point buoys six kilometres offshore, not at a pier verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
441 kilometres. It is nobody's mistake: it is the figure Río Negro uses to assess the environmental levy, while the descriptive memorandum of that same agreement says 437. Both figures coexist inside the same instrument verif · May 26, 2025 ↗
3,774,000 barrels according to the national resolution, expandable to 6,290,000. The agreement with the province describes the tank farm as built: six tanks of 120,000 m³ at Punta Colorada and three of 50,000 m³ at Allen verif · May 26, 2025 ↗
Potential of 700,000 barrels per day across the two single-point moorings verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
The pumping stations plug into the Comahue public grid, not into their own generation. The national regulator published two new demands: 11.34 MVA for the Allen head station and 8.10 MVA for the Chelforó pumping station, with two new 132/6.6 kV transformer stations — 24 MVA at Allen and 10 MVA at Chelforó — and just 600 metres of high-voltage line to connect them. They are operated by Transcomahue, the provincial transmission company prob · Jul 22, 2025 ↗
Groundwater from two private wells, Olivar 2 and Olivar 6, with a maximum authorised flow of 25 m³ per hour between them. The permit covers only «construction and commissioning», lapses if the use changes and expires after four years verif · Jun 11, 2025 ↗
Surface water from the Alto Valle Main Irrigation Canal, 42.5 m³ per hour, for the fire-fighting network and industrial uses during construction. It carries a seasonal restriction written into the permit itself: during the shutdown period the canal runs dry verif · Sep 19, 2025 ↗
Four pumping stations and 28 block valves along the 437 kilometres prob · 2026 ↗
What reserves back it
490,000 barrels a day committed firm by the shareholders before the pipeline existed. YPF put in 120,000, Vista 50,000 and Pampa 50,000; the remaining 270,000 are split among six shareholders that are not listed and do not publish their volume. That commitment is the security for the USD 2,000 million loan verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
The pipeline has no reserves of its own: it transports those of its shippers. The Neuquén unconventional basin held 1,546 million barrels of proved oil reserves as of 31 December 2023, the most recent official published record. The largest blocks behind that figure are La Amarga Chica with 250, Loma Campana-LLL with 247, Bajada del Palo Oeste with 173 and Bandurria Sur with 143 million barrels prob · Dec 31, 2023 ↗
Who owns it
VMOS S.A., CUIT 30-71871335-4. It is a company created for this work by the same oil companies that will use the pipeline. verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
Nine groups, eleven entities: Chevron and Shell each come in through two companies. Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén is the only Class B shareholder; the rest are Class A. verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
24.49% as of 31 December 2025. The shareholders' meeting of 23 April 2026 approved expanding its capacity, which would take it to 29.82%, but YPF itself states that the subscription is still pending payment verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
10,20% verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
10.20% at the close of 2025 and 9.09% as of 30 June 2026, because the base it is calculated on grew verif · Jun 30, 2026 ↗
Pan American Sur, Pluspetrol, Chevron, Shell, Tecpetrol and Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén are not listed and do not publish their stakes. Tecpetrol came in in June 2025, after the rest verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
No shareholder controls the company, but YPF runs it: Gustavo María Gallino, YPF's Vice President of Infrastructure, is a director and chairman of the board of VMOS. The CEO is Gustavo Chaab prob · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
USD 301 million at the close of 2025, with a net loss of USD 51.4 million for the year. As of 30 June 2026 equity was up and the half-year result had turned positive, still without transporting a single barrel verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
What other projects it links to
What this project enables or needs outside the province, and through what mechanism.
NeuquénThe project ends in Río Negro but its reason for existing is in Neuquén: it carries crude from Vaca Muerta verif · Aug 10, 2026 ↗+
The effect runs both ways — without this outlet to the Atlantic, Neuquén's production stalls even with wells drilled, and without that production the pipe does not fill.
NeuquénAnother RIGI project shares this pipeline's right-of-way and is assessing reusing its construction camps: the San Matías Dedicated Pipeline, of San Matías Pipeline S.A., which supplies the floating LNG project in the Golfo San Matías verif · Feb 2026 ↗+
The works, milestone by milestone
The works reach 80% and the operator confirms to the market that the first export sails in early 2027
The anchors and chains that will hold the two single-point moorings are set on the floor of the Golfo San Matías
The pipeline crosses the Río Negro beneath the riverbed, 25 metres deep, in the Chelforó area. It had been scheduled for December 2025: it is the only schedule slippage documented with an official source on both sides
Final automatic weld of the pipeline at the entrance to the Punta Colorada terminal. In October the Techint-SACDE joint venture had set a record of 175 joints and more than four kilometres in a single day
VMOS signs an international syndicated loan of USD 2,000 million over five years, secured by the transport contracts and by the partners' Class A shares
The Río Negro legislature ratifies through Ley 5782 the agreement with VMOS: a one-off bond of USD 60 million and a community contribution of USD 40 million a year for thirteen years
Resolución 302/2025 is published, approving accession to the RIGI as a Long-Term Strategic Export Project
RIGI accession date set by article 2 of the resolution. The thirty years of stability hang from this date
The board of VMOS S.A. unanimously approved the construction of the pipeline. The same day the four founding partners signed the shareholders' agreement and the first firm transport contracts
Who already has a contract
EPC contract with VMOS S.A., works started in February 2025
Terminal works, including the early water supply and power feed works
A contract of more than 250 days of work at sea, across two campaigns during 2026, worth what the company itself classifies as between USD 25 and 50 million
More than 10,100 tonnes of pipe shipped from Dock Sud for the marine front
It is the only Río Negro company with a VMOS contract confirmed by name. The service covers around 1,500 workers
How to supply itwhere to register, what they ask for and what they will buy
How to become a supplier
VMOS S.A., CUIT 30-71871335-4, registered office at Ingeniero Enrique Butty 235, Ground Floor, Office 1, CABA, and special domicile in the province at 25 de Mayo 196, Viedma. Watch out for which company: the operation under the regime runs through RIGI - VMOS S.A., CUIT 30-71890264-5, a separate tax identification created by order of article 10 of the resolution. The province removed VMOS S.A. as a withholding agent for that reason. And in practice most local suppliers invoice neither of the two: they invoice the contractor.
The procurement area of VMOS S.A., a company with no controlling shareholder: YPF is the largest with less than a third and runs it in practice —its Vice President of Infrastructure chairs the board— but no decision goes through without a coalition. The local door is one step below: the large packages go to four contractors —the Techint-SACDE joint venture on the pipeline, Milicic on the terminal, AESA and OPS on the pump stations— and they are the ones who build their own supply chain.
The registration routes that exist today, with their status. The one that is up and running is not always the official one.
Río Negro Suppliers Register (Ley 5805)
up and running todayThis is the provincial single window and it is populated today: when the regulation was issued it held 476 companies, of which 308 registered, 129 pre-registered, 12 conditional, 15 out of date, 11 pending and one rejected. Certification is valid for a year and is renewable. There is a figure designed for the outsider who wants to set up locally: the Conditional Río Negro Supplier, with a relocation plan of up to 24 months
Go to the single windowabrirWhat they ask you for
Established in Río Negro: the provincial hydrocarbon transport law requires hiring workers and suppliers established in the province at a share of no less than 80%, and that obligation also reaches contractors and subcontractors, which is where the buying actually happens verif · Sep 29, 2022 ↗Ley provincial 5.594, article 8: «Los sujetos alcanzados por la presente, así como sus contratistas y subcontratistas, deberán contratar trabajadores y proveedores radicados en la jurisdicción de la Provincia de Río Negro en un porcentaje no inferior al ochenta por ciento (80%), salvo causa debidamente acreditada ante la autoridad de aplicación, para todas aquellas tareas que deban ejecutarse en territorio provincial»
Being registered in the Río Negro Suppliers Register so that the purchase counts as local content and so that the company is required to invite you to bid prob · Jul 1, 2026 ↗The regulation of Ley 5805 sets a floor of 60% of contracting with Río Negro suppliers and mandatory invitation of the companies listed in the register
The RIGI ad hoc certificate of national origin, if what you sell is goods and you want them to count towards the project's supplier plan prob · Feb 25, 2025 ↗It is created by Resolución 19/2025 of the Secretaría de Industria y Comercio, issued by authorised bodies, does not require proving prior exports and is valid for two years. Its number must appear on the commercial documents
The order you get in by
Aim at the phase you want to sell to, not at the project. The pipeline is already welded and the tanks are being assembled: the civil works and right-of-way welding packages have already been awarded. What is being bought today is the offshore front, and what has not been bought yet is the operation now
Register in the Río Negro Suppliers Register. Outside the register they are not required to invite you to quote, and your sale does not count as local content in any report annual certification, renewable
Target the contractor, not the owner. The big four —Techint-SACDE, Milicic, AESA and OPS— build their own chain, and that is where a Río Negro SME gets in depending on the work front
If you are from outside the province, the route is the Conditional Río Negro Supplier with a relocation plan: the law asks for local roots, not a borrowed office up to 24 months
What it will buy, and when
Each phase buys different things at different times. The links lead to the matching market or trade.
Pump stations and tanks
en cursoFour pump stations, the Allen head station with three tanks and the six-tank farm at Punta Colorada, with their geodesic domes and hydrostatic testing. Each tank needs fourteen days of controlled filling before it can be used: roofing it does not put it into service.
Subsea pipeline and single-point moorings
en cursoThis is the active phase today and the only stretch of the corridor with no installed local capacity: some five kilometres of concrete-coated pipe, two CALM-type single-point moorings six kilometres offshore, 43-tonne anchors and 400-metre chains. The work is done by vessels and contractors from abroad.
They are not buying any of this today. Open the phase to see the detail and arrive qualified the day it goes to tender.
Engineering, permits and procurement2022 a 2025hecha1 ítem+
Environmental impact study, public hearing, EPC award and purchase of pipe, plate and equipment. This is the phase where it is decided who gets to bid: by the time construction starts, the large packages are already closed.
Right-of-way clearing and earthworks2025hecha3 ítems+
More than 300 kilometres of right-of-way opened in the first months, with three camps and 7- and 14-day rotations. It is the phase that moves the most people and the first to reach local suppliers of transport, catering and accommodation.
Pipe laying and welding2025 a 2026hecha2 ítems+
Automatic welding of the 437 kilometres, with 76 special crossings of roads and streams and the crossing of the Río Negro beneath the riverbed. It closed at the terminal entrance in November 2025.
Line fill and first exportlate 2026 to early 2027pendiente1 ítem+
Line fill of the pipeline and the first loaded vessel. The threshold the company's chairman stated is having at least two tanks and one single-point mooring in operation.
Operation and maintenancefrom 2027pendiente4 ítems+
The shift almost nobody is watching: a marine terminal operating 24 hours a day needs maintenance, tugs, diving, pipeline integrity inspection, spill response and environmental monitoring for decades. That market has no owner yet on the Río Negro coast.
No catalogued supplier yet: Spill response and OSRO vessels · Marine environmental monitoring of the Golfo San Matías
What it will need and has no supplier for yet
Operation and maintenance of the marine terminal
highThe terminal runs 24 hours a day for decades and needs electromechanical maintenance, integrity inspection, diving and tugboats. This demand starts when construction ends, not before, and today it has no established supplier on the Río Negro coast.
Spill response and marine environmental monitoring
highA crude export terminal in a gulf with protected areas requires a contingency plan, response equipment and continuous monitoring. The conditions attached to the environmental permit are, in practice, the specification for this service.
Personnel transport and camp logistics
highIt is the largest line in purchases from Río Negro suppliers, at ARS 5,164 million in a single quarter, above any technical service. Demand is continuous while construction lasts and shrinks, without disappearing, once in operation.
Catering, meals and accommodation
highThe second-largest line by amount in the quarter, at ARS 4,059 million, and the only one with a Río Negro company holding a contract confirmed by name. Sierra Grande absorbs 60% of the corridor's demand.
Metalworking, boilermaking and electromechanical assembly
highThe tanks, the pumping stations and the substation require certified welding, assembly and non-destructive testing. Provincial law requires 80% of suppliers to be based in Río Negro, and that obligation reaches the contractors, which is where the buying happens.
Marine services: towage, diving and offshore support
mediumThe two single-point moorings concentrate the loading operation and today the work is done by a foreign fleet hired campaign by campaign. It is the only stretch of the corridor with no installed local capacity, and therefore the clearest market gap.
Get on board the takeoff
This week’s updates: proyectos RIGI, proveedores y datos verificados de Río Negro and new provinces as they launch. Free.
What it leaves in Río Negrojobs, works, taxes, promises and the outlook
How many jobs it creates
Around 2,000 people at peak construction, according to the pipeline contractor itself. The official RIGI register assigns the project 3,108 direct and indirect jobs, without distinguishing construction from operation prob · 2026 ↗
The works that stay behind
The infrastructure that stays standing once the works end, with its size and its source.
Provincial Route 9, stretch from Route 3 to the Punta Colorada pier
vialof gravel road between Route 3 and the pier
Sierra Grande and Punta Colorada
Funded by the VMOS Bond. It is gravel, not asphalt: grading, embankments, culverts, guardrail and signage. Bids were opened in April 2026 with five bidders and by mid-year it was still not awarded
Expansion of School 60 in Sierra Grande
socialm² sports hall
Sierra Grande
A multipurpose hall with gym, gender-separate toilets, accessibility, kitchen and lobby with independent entrance, for $1,410,543,073 and a twelve-month term, funded by the VMOS Bond. It stays open to the public for sports and social activities
Refurbishment of the Sierra Grande Hospital, stage 2
socialofficial budget
Sierra Grande
Roofing, ceilings, storm and sewage drainage and vehicle access at the Dr. Osvaldo P. Bianchi Hospital, with the works delegated to the municipality and a term of 150 calendar days from the start certificate. The decree approves and funds the works: as of 30 July 2026 the agreement was still «to be signed» and there was no start certificate
Transfer to the Municipality of Sierra Grande
otratransferred to the municipality
Sierra Grande
This is the 5% of the Bond that the law reserves for the municipality, and it is the only completed movement of funds we could document. Stated purpose: road machinery, 1,000 LED streetlights and 14,590 m² of paving. The mayor submits the projects but the province has to approve them before the money is transferred
Hospitals in Sierra Colorada and Barda del Medio
socialbetween the two: 10 in Sierra Colorada and 7 in Barda del Medio
Río Negro (not the corridor)
Two new hospitals funded by the VMOS Bond, hundreds of kilometres from the pipe. This is the structural fact worth keeping in view: the works the pipeline leaves behind are provincial, not local. The Bond also pays for schools in El Bolsón, Cipolletti, General Roca, Fernández Oro and Luis Beltrán. Sierra Grande, the municipality that hosts the terminal, gets the 5% plus whatever the province decides to allocate to it
What it already pays in taxes and royalties
Item by item, with the rule that sets it. A rate is not the same as what is collected, nor what is received the same as what is projected.
5/95%Territorial Development Contribution (the «VMOS Bond») verif · May 26, 2025 ↗+
USD 40,000,000Community Contribution verif · May 26, 2025 ↗+
USD 1,050,000Control and Oversight Fee verif · May 26, 2025 ↗+
Environmental fee verif · May 26, 2025 ↗+
Port public domain use fee estim · May 26, 2025+
Who promised what
Who promised what, with a date and with how to check it. We record them whatever the political colour.
pendienteVMOS S.A. and its shareholders · First crude export in early 2027, with commercial start-up at the close of the fourth quarter of 2026 verif · Aug 10, 2026 ↗+
pendienteVMOS S.A. · Completing the minimum investment amount in computable assets before 31 December 2028, with a 20% milestone in the first two years from notification verif · Dec 31, 2028 ↗+
parcialVMOS S.A. · Paying Río Negro USD 40 million a year for thirteen years as a Community Contribution, on top of the initial USD 60 million bond prob · Feb 2026 ↗+
parcialGovernment of Río Negro · That energy development leaves Río Negro suppliers behind: awarded companies went from 14 to 48 between the first quarter of 2025 and that of 2026, with 70% provincial participation prob · Mar 31, 2026 ↗+
What changes in Río Negro if the project works
The first vessel loads in early 2027 and by the second half of that year the system moves around 550,000 barrels a day. That is the headline, and it is not what matters most here.
What changes in Río Negro is that the province gains an oil export terminal where before there was a beach and a town living off the memory of a closed mine. Sierra Grande stops being a place you drive through: Ley 5.594 requires 80% of the project's workers and suppliers to be based in the province, and that share also reaches contractors and subcontractors, which is where the buying actually happens. In the first quarter of 2026 the project bought $15,902 million from Río Negro suppliers, and the largest category was not engineering: it was staff transport, at $5,164 million, followed by catering at $4,059 million.
And there is a second shift almost nobody is watching. Construction ends, but the system starts: a marine terminal operating around the clock needs maintenance, tugs, diving, pipeline inspection, spill response and environmental monitoring for decades. That market does not exist on the Río Negro coast today and it has no owner yet.
Outlook to 2027, built on the verified data of this page and our analytical framework. We also publish what would invalidate it.
What could stall itrisks and how to track them
What could stall it
Each risk, with who or what could trigger it.
tecnicoThat the committed crude does not show up in the firm volumeShippers committed 490,000 barrels a day firm, but part of that backing sits in blocks that are not reserves yet. As of 31 December 2023 Rincón de Aranda, the block on which Pampa bases its 50,000 barrels, was filed with the Secretaría de Energía with zero proved reserves and 11 million barrels of contingent resources; through all of 2025 it produced around 9,400 barrels a day. prob · Dec 31, 2023 ↗+
logisticoThe offshore front is the critical stretch and it has no slackThe first export requires at least two tanks and one single-point mooring in operation. The tanks need fourteen days of hydrostatic testing each and can only be tested once roofed; the moorings are manufactured abroad and installed by a vessel campaign with a narrow weather window. All of that happens between September and December 2026. prob · Jun 2026 ↗+
ambientalEnvironmental and social in the Golfo San MatíasThe terminal operates in a gulf with protected coastal-marine areas, and the environmental approval is in YPF's name and not VMOS's. The permit conditions —marine monitoring, guarantees, spill contingency plan— are not published in the provincial Boletín Oficial, so they cannot even be audited from outside. verif · Sep 29, 2022 ↗+
socialPressure on Sierra GrandeA town of fewer than 9,000 people takes in works that at their peak moved thousands. The governor himself acknowledged a significant rise in rents, and the only available description of the local hospital dates from 2009. 22.3% of the department's households rent. verif · 2022 ↗+
regulatorioClash between the provincial local-content rule and the national regimeRío Negro requires by law 80% of workers and suppliers established in the province; the RIGI guarantees projects that join it that they will not face rules forcing them to buy local on worse-than-market terms, and its own floor is 20%. Which one governs VMOS is not settled in any public act. verif · Sep 29, 2022 ↗+
The permits the works need, and where each one stands.
Resolución 380/2024 of the Río Negro Environment and Climate Change Secretariat approved the pipeline's environmental impact study. It is in the name of YPF S.A., not VMOS: the agreement with the province provides for the transfer of the permits but there is no instrument approving it verif · 2024 ↗
It was held on 17 August 2023 at the Vuta Mahuida gymnasium in Sierra Grande and 51 people spoke. It ran all day: it opened at 8 and closed at 19:50. Under provincial law it is consultative and non-binding, and the official statement declares neither approval nor rejection prob · Aug 17, 2023 ↗
The certificate from the National Registry of Hydrocarbon Carriers, Operator category No. 58, is what allows VMOS to build the pipeline. It was granted on 6 February 2025 with expiry in July of that same year, and its renewal is not published verif · Feb 6, 2025 ↗
Two permits from the Provincial Water Department: Resolución 513/2025 for the terminal and the coastal pipeline, and Resolución 768/2025 for the Allen head station. Both cover construction, not operation verif · Sep 19, 2025 ↗
How to tell whether it is advancing
Observable facts that show whether the project is advancing, and where to look for each.
trimestralConstruction progress and first crude date+
eventoInstallation of the first single-point mooring+
eventoRenewal of the carrier certificate+
eventoWater permit for the operation+
trimestralPurchases from Río Negro suppliers+
eventoAccounting for the Community Contribution+
How we verified thisthe act, the gaps and the sources
The RIGI act, in detail
Mar 6, 2025 verif · Mar 6, 2025 ↗
Mar 20, 2025 verif · Mar 20, 2025 ↗
Mar 21, 2025 (notice No. 17090/25, First Section) verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
The act’s articles, in detail
7 facts on the commitment
20 % of the minimum investment amount, to be evidenced during the first and second year from notification of the resolution verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
The 20% is calculated on the minimum investment amount the regulation sets for a Long-Term Strategic Export Project, not on VMOS's own investment. That minimum is USD 2,000 million, so the two-year milestone is around USD 400 million. It should not be read as an advantage: VMOS's subsector — oil and gas transport and storage — has a minimum of USD 300 million under the ordinary regime, where the required share is 40%, that is USD 120 million. Entering as a strategic project raises the bar for those two years, it does not lower it. estim · Mar 21, 2025
31 December 2028 to complete the minimum investment amount. VMOS declared a plan that front-loads almost all of it: USD 1,318 million in the first year and USD 1,123 million in the second. verif · Dec 31, 2028 ↗
Between USD 2,900 and USD 3,200 million USD million (declared by the applicant) verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
2.486 USD million recognised as computable assets under the RIGI verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
VMOS S.A., tax ID 30-71871335-4, registered at Ingeniero Enrique Butty 235, Ground Floor, Office 1, Buenos Aires City. It was created as a single-shareholder company (VMOS S.A.U.) and converted into a corporation on 13 December 2024, recorded with the corporate registry on 24 January 2025. There is a second entity worth not confusing: operations under the regime run through RIGI - VMOS S.A., tax ID 30-71890264-5, the separate tax identification that article 10 of the resolution ordered ARCA to create. verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
The national Energy Secretariat, as assigned by article 8 of the resolution verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
How much it commits to invest, and how it pays for it
6 facts on the investment
1.333 USD million verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
1.153 USD million verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
1.318 USD million verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
1.123 USD million verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
An international syndicated loan of USD 2,000 million signed on 8 July 2025, five-year term at SOFR plus 5.50%, covers around 70% of the project's capital; the remaining 30% comes from the shareholders. As of 31 December 2025 the banks had disbursed USD 820 million verif · Dec 31, 2025 ↗
Four properties for USD 2.28 million in total, within the 15% cap set by law. That is 0.09% of the computable investment verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
What the regime gives in return
4 benefits of the regime
Long-Term Strategic Export Project (PEELP), Oil and Gas sector, transport and storage of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
Thirty years of tax, customs, foreign exchange and regulatory stability counted from the date of adherence, that is from 6 March 2025 verif · Mar 6, 2025 ↗
VMOS did NOT request the free availability of export proceeds, and so it does not have it. It is the most sought-after foreign exchange incentive in the regime and article 11 of the resolution expressly excludes it verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
The regime requires filing a local supplier development plan with a floor of 20% of the amount earmarked to pay suppliers of goods and works, sustained through construction and operation. VMOS filed one, but the plan is not public: the resolution mentions it once and without a single figure of its own. The law adds an escape clause worth knowing before complaining: the commitment applies «provided that local supply is available and on market terms as to price and quality» verif · Mar 21, 2025 ↗
What we could not confirm
There are 11 in this project. Each says why it could not be confirmed and what it would take to close it.
H-01The conditions attached to the environmental permit+
Río Negro's Secretaría de Ambiente y Cambio Climático does not publish its environmental impact resolutions in the Boletín Oficial. We know the act's number —Resolución 380/2024— because a later decree cites it, but not its exact date, nor its text, nor its scope, nor a single one of its conditions: marine monitoring, guarantees, spill contingency plan, reporting obligations.
H-02How many people stay on once construction ends+
No source publishes the system's permanent operating headcount. Every figure in circulation is a construction figure: 2,000 at peak according to the contractor, more than 5,000 according to the province, 10,000 from the governor. The official RIGI register declares 3,108 direct and indirect jobs without distinguishing the stage.
H-03What VMOS committed to in its supplier development plan+
The plan exists and is identified as document RE-2024-126056639-APN-SCEYM#MEC, but it is not public: the resolution mentions it once and without a single figure of its own, and the official RIGI portal only publishes aggregates. We do not know whether it committed to more than the legal floor of 20%, nor with what breakdown, nor on what base amount.
H-04The names of the Río Negro companies under contract+
The province publishes the aggregate —48 companies awarded in the sector, 70% from Río Negro, $15,902 million purchased in one quarter— but not the list. The provincial register does not expose a searchable roll and the chambers have not released it either. We have a single Río Negro company with a contract confirmed by name.
H-05What was left out of the computable assets+
Between the declared total investment and what the State recognises as computable there is a gap of between USD 414 and 714 million, and the breakdown is not published. Resolución 302/2025 has no annex: it is eight pages ending at the foot of the notice.
H-06How much water the project consumes+
The permits are there, with their source and their maximum authorised flow, but there is no published figure for actual consumption: neither for construction nor for operation. And operating consumption is a structural gap, not a search failure: the permits in force cover construction only.
H-07Whether Río Negro actually collected the USD 60 million bond and the first annual instalment+
The commitment is in point 5.2 of the Acta Acuerdo ratified by Ley 5782 —USD 60 million initial bond plus USD 40 million a year for thirteen years, falling due before 28 February each year— and the province reported the first two receipts as collected. But neither has a public primary source: what exists is the provincial statement, not an act evidencing the receipt.
H-08What the USD 60 million of the bond was spent on+
What exists are announcements in the future tense, not an accounting of executed spending. No administrative act allocates the bond line by line, and in the province's 2025 Investment Account there is not a single traceable line by name: zero mentions of VMOS, of the bond or of the pipeline across 111 pages.
H-09How the Punta Colorada Terminal is powered+
The regulator's act covers the Allen and Chelforó pump stations, not the terminal. For the terminal there is no power rating, no voltage, no substation, no supplier, no transmission line works. And the electrical filing is in YPF's name, not VMOS's, so searching by the project's name does not find it.
H-10The capacity of the Sierra Grande hospital+
The only description of staffing that exists dates from 2009 and sits in the explanatory notes of a bill that was never passed. Beds in service, emergency cover and shifts: no data at any date. It is the corridor's most concrete local pressure and the least measured.
H-11Rental prices in the corridor+
There is no published series with a dated source and a method for Sierra Grande, Playas Doradas or Las Grutas. The increase is stated by the governor himself, but without a single figure. What does stand as a durable baseline is the tenure structure: 22.3% of the department's households rent, according to the 2022 census.
Frequently asked questions
Does VMOS start in Neuquén?Noverif+
The approved project runs from Allen to Punta Colorada, both points inside Río Negro, and it is 437 kilometres long. The crude does come from Vaca Muerta, but it reaches Allen through other pipelines that are not part of this project. ↗
How much money does VMOS leave in Río Negro?A one-off bond of USD 60 million, plus USD 40 million a year for thirteen years, plus a control fee of USD 1.05 million a year, plus the environmental fee and the port fee once the system operatesverif+
5% of the bond goes to the municipality of Sierra Grande. ↗
How much do I have to buy from Río Negro suppliers if I work on the project?Ley provincial 5.594 requires no less than 80% of workers and suppliers established in Río Negro, and it also reaches contractors and subcontractorsverif+
The RIGI, for its part, sets a floor of 20% for local suppliers. Which of the two regimes prevails over a project that has joined is not settled in any public act. ↗
When does the first vessel sail?In early 2027, according to what YPF told the market in August 2026verif+
It requires at least two tested tanks and one single-point mooring in operation. ↗
Who owns VMOS?Nine oil groupsverif+
Only three publish their stake because they are the only listed ones: YPF 24.49%, Vista 10.20% and Pampa 10.20% at the close of 2025. Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén is the only Class B shareholder. None of them controls the company. ↗
Who do I invoice if I sell a service?In most cases, the contractor and not the pipeline's owner: the large packages are held by Techint-SACDE, Milicic, AESA and OPS, and each builds its own chainverif+
If you invoice the company, check which one: VMOS S.A. has CUIT 30-71871335-4 and the operation under the regime runs through RIGI - VMOS S.A., CUIT 30-71890264-5. ↗
Official sources
