President Mauricio Macri is pushing to revamp flagging production at Argentina’s massive shale reserves, with companies agreeing on Tuesday to invest as much as $15bn a year in exchange for lower labour costs and extended state subsidies. The drive to increase investment and productivity in the Vaca Muerta shale deposit in Patagonia, which boasts the second-largest reserves of shale gas in the world, is part of Argentina ’s attempt to recover energy self-sufficiency and emulate the shale boom in the US. Mr Macri proclaimed a “new era” for the country’s languishing energy sector, which will see foreign companies including Chevron , Dow , BP , Shell and Total, as well as Argentina’s state energy company YPF , invest an initial $5bn in 2017, rising to $15bn in subsequent years. Although once a net exporter of energy, a lack of investment in recent years has seen production plummet, leaving Argentina […]