Having inked a $300 million investment deal with the Argentinian YPF, Shell reiterated its claim to join the ranks of the various oil & gas majors engaged in tapping the plentiful shale resources of the Vaca Muerta (“Dead Cow”) formation in Neuquén Province. Competitors abound – ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP (Pan American Energy), Total, Petrobras, Wintershall and others all stand to consolidate their hold on Latin America’s largest shale development, with reserves of 8.7 TCm of gas and 16 bn barrels of oil. After the discovery of several large-scale fields between 2010 and 2012, Vaca Muerta came to be known as a top-potential project that simply took too long to develop. The ultimate root cause of the delays can be traced back to the complex system of relations between the Argentinian state and companies operating within its territory. YPF controls approximately half of the Vaca Muerta acreage and after its […]