Vaca Muerta will have to measure and report its methane (and the UN watches it by satellite)

Neuquén moves from requesting emissions information on a voluntary basis (it did so in 2022) to a mandatory reporting regime. Res. 258/2025 creates the GHG Emissions Monitoring and Mitigation Program for the hydrocarbon sector and establishes mandatory reporting of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, activity variables, mitigation actions and complementary data, in all new and existing facilities for the exploration, exploitation, transport, storage, processing and industrialization of hydrocarbons verif. Its annex defines as obligated parties «every company or group of companies, concessionaires, permit holders, operators» of those activities, sets a one-year pilot stage (diagnosis, reporting procedure, preliminary report and sector mitigation plan) and then an Annual Emissions Report validated by authorized third parties, and includes a leak detection and repair program verif. The program uses satellite and aerial data from international platforms that identify super-emissions of 500 kg per hour and notifies the operators when it detects them prob. The Reporting Procedure, presented in April 2026 within the same Res. 258/2025, introduces five reporting levels with requirements that grow with production volume: from the disaggregation of emissions by source type at the low levels to own emission factors based on direct measurements and validation by remote detection at the facility level at the high levels, with mandatory third-party verification and progressive implementation until 2030; in this first stage it reaches the upstream prob. The production thresholds that separate the five levels, the deadlines of each phase and a specific fines regime remain unconfirmed in a primary source. verif · Apr 1, 2025 ↗

Resolution dated 02/21/2025 and published in the Official Gazette of Neuquén No. 4417 of 04/01/2025 verif. Implementation is gradual in two phases: a one-year pilot stage from the creation of the program (initial diagnosis, reporting procedure, preliminary report and sector mitigation plan) and then the implementation phase, with an Annual Emissions Report validated by third parties. Those phases are in annex IF-2025-00389589-NEU-SCLIM#SAMB, which the gazette does not reproduce but the Environment Secretariat publishes on its official site verif. verif · Apr 1, 2025 ↗

Vaca Muerta operators and concessionaires: every company, concessionaire, permit holder or operator that explores, exploits, transports, stores, processes or industrializes hydrocarbons in the province verif; those with the highest production fall into the high reporting levels, with direct measurements and validation by remote detection prob. The annual report must be validated by authorized third parties, and the program provides for a leak detection and repair plan verif. That creates demand for providers of environmental and measurement services: methane monitoring and quantification (leak detection and repair, cameras, sensors, overflights), measurement, reporting and verification consultancies, authorized verifiers of the reports and mitigation technology (venting replacement, capture, low-emission equipment) thesis. It is new regulatory demand, distinct from that of shale water and waste thesis. verif · Apr 1, 2025 ↗