Energy Advisor

Juan Cruz Díaz, managing director, Macarena Michienzi, specialist, both at Cefeidas Group: “The Trans-Andean Oil Pipeline began operations in 1994. Through 2005, Chilean state-owned oil and gas company ENAP contracted its Argentine counterpart, YPF, and Chevron to supply Chile with oil through it. However, amid the contracts’ expiration and oil output falling below the level required for the pipeline to function, Argentina halted cross-border shipments. The pipeline’s closure capped off years of consistent drops in production. Between 1998 and 2002, investment in oil exploration, extractive technology and upstream infrastructure fell short of what was needed to counterbalance the rate of well exhaustion, a reality that remained the case through the 2010s. This upended Argentina’s energy sourcing. By 2011, the traditionally energy-exporting nation became a net importer. However, in 2019, in the wake of the Vaca Muerta production boom, Buenos Aires and Santiago have agreed to work to reactivate the Trans-Andean pipeline, which has the potential to pump upwards of…”