RIGI and its supply linkages: 74 markets, measured one by one
Markets mapped
74
across 5 provinces · each one with its method and sources in plain view
Derived demand
USD 15,631 M
million a year · sum of midpoints
Projects with their chain mapped
21
of 30 in the portfolio
The claim we are answering
«The approved investments foresee the creation of little more than a thousand direct jobs […] there is no concrete plan for industrialization at origin, nor for generating productive linkages that would translate those investments into lasting economic impact for the regions involved.»
Observatorio del RIGI — El RIGI tras su primer año, August 2025. Its members are FARN, CELS, CEPPAS, TNI, ETFE and EPyG-UNSAM. It counted 19 applications filed. Read at isds-americalatina.org/observatorio_rigi/ on 2026-08-19.
Their direct-employment figure is a correct floor
We don't dispute it: a thousand-odd direct jobs across the projects approved as of August 2025 is a reasonable reading of the official projections of the time. What that number counts is a single layer. A multi-billion-dollar project does not hire its own staff and stop there: it buys sand, pipe, cement, chemicals, power, lab services, earthworks, transport. That second layer is the one the paragraph declares absent.
It declares it absent without measuring it, and that is not a reproach: it is that nobody had measured it. That is the work we did — 74 markets, each with its calculation in plain view and its confidence level declared.
The three numbers that exist on this today
they measure different things| Who publishes it | What exactly it measures | The number | As of when | Under what seal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observatorio del RIGI FARN · CELS · CEPPAS · TNI · ETFE · EPyG-UNSAM | Direct employment foreseen by the approved projects | «little more than a thousand direct jobs» | August 2025 · 19 applications filed | that report's figure, read from the official projections of the time |
| Ministerio de Economía official RIGI portal | Direct and indirect employment, projected, in a single number | 108,450 (23 approved) + 128,809 (23 under review) = 237,259 USD 49,766 M + USD 153,709 M = USD 203,475 M | Sep-2026 · 46 initiatives | official, but it is a projection and it does not separate direct from indirect employment, so it cannot be audited market by market. The tranche under review is published only in aggregate, with no list of projects |
| Despegue Despegue | The derived demand the regime pulls along, measured market by market | USD 15,631M/year across 74 markets 65 in the supplier chain (USD 12,361M) · 9 in induced economy (USD 3,270M) | 2026-09-08 · 5 provinces | estim on all 74: our own calculation with a published method per market. None is verif, and we say so |
The three rows are not comparable to each other: two measure employment and one measures demand in dollars, at cut-off dates a year apart and over different universes of projects. They sit together to show what each one measures, not to arbitrate which one wins.
The chain, province by province
74 markets · USD 15,631M/yearNeuquén · 29 marketssee the province →
USD 13,656M/year
22 in the supplier chain · of which USD 3,228M is induced economy (7 markets)
San Juan · 13 marketssee the province →
USD 1,206M/year
13 in the supplier chain
Río Negro · 12 marketssee the province →
USD 313M/year
10 in the supplier chain · of which USD 42M is induced economy (2 markets)
Salta · 9 marketssee the province →
USD 229M/year
9 in the supplier chain
Catamarca · 11 marketssee the province →
USD 227M/year
11 in the supplier chain
Total mapped: USD 15,631M/year — USD 12,361M of supplier chain (65 markets) and USD 3,270M of induced economy (9 markets).
Supplier chain is what the project buys in order to operate. Induced economy is the set of markets that appear when wages reach a town: retail, housing, health, education, food service. The second is mapped in Neuquén and Río Negro and not yet in San Juan, Salta or Catamarca — so this page's number is a floor there, not a ceiling.
Project by project: which markets it buys from
21 of 30 projectsPampa Energía - Rincón de Aranda17 markets
Vaca Muerta Oleoducto Sur (VMOS)17 markets
Río Negro · buys from: Steel tubes (OCTG) and line pipe · Metalworking, boilermaking and industrial maintenance · HSE, well control and safety
Tecpetrol - Los Toldos II Este12 markets
See all 21 projectsSee only the first 7
These counts do not add up. Markets are shared between neighbouring projects — those supplying one Vaca Muerta development are nearly the same ones supplying the next —, so adding the columns would count the same market many times over. That is why what we publish here is how many markets each project touches and not an amount per project: the count is exact, the amount would be double counting. The only total that adds without repeating is the one in the previous section.
How these numbers are calculated
30 projects in the portfolioverif→21 with their supplier chain mapped→74 markets measured one by oneestim→65 + 9 in the direct chain and in induced economy→USD 12,361 + 3,270 M a year, adding the midpoints→USD 15,631 M a year · this page's number
Each market has an estimated annual addressable market built bottom-up (physical volume by price, or headcount by rate), and all 74 are written as a range, not as a point figure. This page's total is the sum of the midpoints of those ranges: it works for order of magnitude, not to be quoted as an exact figure.
All 74 carry the estim seal — our own calculation, not official data: nobody publishes spending by market. What is verif against a primary source are the projects, their amounts and their resolutions in the Boletín Oficial, and that lives in the project cards. Each market's method can be read in full on its own page.
What this page does not say
It does not say these are jobs. Our data is demand in dollars; turning it into headcount requires a multiplier we have not measured, so we don't do it. The only employment figure that appears here is the official one, quoted as what it is.
It does not say Argentine suppliers will capture this chain. That depends on the companies existing to supply it, and in several of these markets today they don't exist or sit in few hands. Each market page publishes who supplies it today and where the way in is.
It does not compare their project count with ours. That report counted 19 applications as of August 2025 and our portfolio has 30 cards today: those are different dates and different definitions, not anyone's error.
What is still to be measured
Induced economy is mapped in 2 of the 5 provinces. 9 of the 30 projects in the portfolio still have no market attached — they are the ones in provinces Despegue does not yet cover. And the 5 provinces covered are not the country: RIGI has projects in jurisdictions that do not appear here.
If you work at a chamber, a cluster or a provincial government that is not among these five, tell us and we see how it can be measured. The entry for institutions →