Neuquén sets entry rules to operate in Vaca Muerta: registry and minimum equity

Decreto 1342/2015 (06/19/2015) creates the Provincial Registry of Hydrocarbon Companies, run by the Undersecretariat of Mining and Hydrocarbons. Those who submit bids in contests or tenders for hydrocarbon permits or concessions in the province, or proposals to the enforcement authority, must register, and must ratify their data every year in July. It sets a solvency threshold: to hold an exploration permit or an exploitation or transport concession, and for an assignment of rights to be authorized, the company must evidence a Net Equity of no less than $2,000,000 (Argentine pesos, not dollars), an amount the decree does not update. Equity is evidenced with an inventory of assets and the last three financial statements certified by an independent public accountant. The decree distinguishes OPERATOR companies, which must evidence technical capacity to develop hydrocarbon projects (Annex I, point 2.2.1), from NON-operator or investor ones, exempt from technical capacity and allowed to take stakes in permits and concessions (point 2.1). In transfers, a total assignment (point 1.4.2) requires the future concessionaire to hold that minimum net equity when requesting authorization, and a partial assignment (point 1.4.3) requires the resulting association to hold it. Sanctions (point 4.1): warning, suspension of up to 5 years or removal from the registry verif. With the inflation accumulated since 2015, that floor has become a symbolic amount thesis. verif · Jun 19, 2015 ↗

2015-06-19 prob · Jun 19, 2015 ↗

Operators and investor (non-operator) companies that want to hold permits or concessions or acquire stakes in Neuquén areas, and buyers and sellers in assignments of those areas, who need to evidence the minimum net equity for the deal to be authorized prob. Also the legal-accounting firms that assemble the enrollment and certify financial statements thesis. For satellite-service SMEs the decree is context: it does not enroll them but their operator clients, yet it defines the universe of clients the province enables to operate thesis. prob · Jun 19, 2015 ↗