In two weeks, bidding will start for work to reverse the direction of flow in Argentina’s northern gas infrastructure, Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa announced on Sunday. He was speaking at the launch of the first stage of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline.

The northern pipeline project will involve building a 30-inch diameter, 150-kilometer pipeline in Córdoba province that will connect the country’s two gas transport systems, operated by the companies Transportadora de Gas del Norte and Transportadora de Gas del Sur.

The infrastructure “will not only allow the north to start receiving Vaca Muerta gas, but also to export from that region to Chile, and to sell it to southern and central Brazil via Bolivia,” Massa said.

In September, bidding will also begin for the second part of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, he added at the launch ceremony for the pipe’s first stage.

The first section of the Néstor Kirchner pipeline runs 573 kilometers from the Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas deposit in Neuquén province, through Río Negro and La Pampa to Salliqueló in Buenos Aires province. It will save Argentina billions on gas imports and pave the way for exports. 

The second stage will run for a further 467 kilometers, from Salliqueló to San Jerónimo, in southern Santa Fe province. This will allow Argentina to export gasto Brazil. It will also supply the Litoral region, which consists of Santa Fe, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Misiones, Chaco and Formosa provinces.

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“Argentina will go from having a foreign deficit because it has to import energy, to being a country with a surplus in its trade balance, because we are doing the necessary public works to definitively change that equation,” the minister said, adding that the pipeline will make electricity cheaper from 2024.

Argentina is set to save US$1.7 billion in gas imports with the Néstor Kirchner pipeline for the rest of 2023, according to official figures. Savings will grow to US$4.2 billion for the whole of 2024, by replacing liquefied natural gas, gas from Bolivia, and liquid fuel imports, while increasing the availability of gas at competitive prices for industry, businesses, and homes.

—with information from Télam.