Vaca Muerta water now costs liters of fuel: a variable fee that rewards reuse

Neuquén moves from a flat water fee to a VARIABLE one indexed to fuel for unconventional drilling. What the norm sets, read in the official text of Decree 792/2026 (4 pages, PDF signed on Jun 4, 2026): the fee applies «per cubic meter (m³) of water taken, extracted or granted under concession» to uses «U.2.2 – Unconventional Exploration Drilling» and «U.2.4 – Unconventional Production Drilling», and its amount «shall be determined by reference to the sale price of Oil Grade 3 fuel marketed by YPF S.A. in the city of Neuquén Capital». The decree ratifies in full the Provision DI-2026-260-E-NEU-SRH#SARN of Jun 3, 2026 (Sec. 1); declares the reuse, recirculation, recovery and efficient use of water in unconventional hydrocarbon activity a priority public policy (Sec. 2); makes that management and the reduction of new withdrawals permanent objectives (Sec. 3); instructs provincial agencies to promote water efficiency and reuse (Sec. 4); and declares of provincial interest those projects that, beyond their main activity, allocate part of their authorised water to productive, agricultural, forestry, industrial, environmental or social uses (Sec. 5). ✅ THE FEE FIGURES ARE NO LONGER PRESS-SOURCED: they are in the official text of Provision SRH No. 260/26, published in full in Official Gazette No. 4583 of Jun 9, 2026, pages 12 to 17 —not in No. 4582, where the decree runs, nor in the registry of Laws and Decrees, which is where it had been searched for—. Its Section 1 sets out, verbatim, «a) From July 1, 2026: the monetary equivalent of 2.5 litres of Oil Grade 3 per cubic metre (m³)» and «b) From January 1, 2027: the monetary equivalent of 3 litres of Oil Grade 3 per cubic metre (m³)». Its Section 2 makes the update automatic against the price in force when the bi-monthly affidavit falls due, and its Section 4 confirms that where the water is supplied by a third party —a loading station, a provider or indirect supply— «the applicable fee shall be the one corresponding to the final use actually given to the water resource». Also absent from the decree is the phrase «had lost its capacity to generate economic incentives» attributed to the norm, the detail that the fee is determined by the final destination of the water even when a third party supplies it, and the requirement to evidence actual use with supporting documentation and affidavits: all of that, if it exists, lives in Provision 260/2026. Antecedents on the same water-shale axis, each with its own source: (a) Provision SRH 67/2023 (Jan 25, 2023) — buried rigid piping mandatory to carry raw water in urban areas or areas of intensive or irrigated farming, flexible hoses banned except for temporary transfers of ≤~3 months/year, cover ≥1.5 times the calculated general scour (Sec. 3), compliance deadline Jan 1, 2024 (Sec. 11); (b) Decree 268/2022 (Feb 11, 2022) — 180 consecutive days' extension of the Water, Social and Productive Emergency declared by Decree 1379/2021. verif · Jun 2026 ↗

Decree 792/2026 carries a digital signature dated Jun 4, 2026 and ratifies Provision 260/2026 of Jun 3, 2026 verif in the official PDF, and its «Article 7: This Decree shall enter into force upon its signing» — meaning the decree has been in force since Jun 4, 2026, and was published in Official Gazette No. 4582 of Jun 5, 2026. The fee SCHEDULE, by contrast — 2.5 l/m³ from Jul 1, 2026 and 3 l/m³ from Jan 1, 2027 — does not appear in the text of the decree, which refers to subsections a) and b) of art. 1 of the Provision: those two dates come from the press, which is why this field stays `probable`. Background: Prov. SRH 67/2023 from January 2023 (adaptation by Jan 1, 2024); Decree 268/2022 from February 2022. prob · Jun 2026 ↗

Shale/tight operators and concessionaires, who see the cost of frac water become more expensive and variable (a direct opex, indexed to fuel) and must keep traceability by final destination with sworn statements. On the other side of the counter, it opens forced demand for the providers of water treatment, reuse and recirculation, flowback management, and for complementary-use projects (irrigation, forestry, industrial): each reused m³ is a fee the operator saves. It also touches the water-transport providers, already required to use buried rigid piping by Prov. 67/2023. prob · Jun 2026 ↗