A decade ago, Vaca Muerta was a term that was rarely talked regarding, much less understood, and its weight in terms of production in the country was almost imperceptible. However, the high levels of productivity achieved along with a sharp drop in the costs of its extraction led to the fact that today the oil of Vaca Muerta not only be the star that drives the country’s production, but also is marking a resounding change in the characteristics of Argentine oil.
Where these changes are best illustrated is in the company Oleoductos del Valle (Oldelval). The company is in charge of the most extensive network of oil pipelines in the countrywhich is responsible for transporting nearly half of all Argentine oil and from whose network the crude leaves both to the large refineries in the country and to exporting vessels.
In an exclusive interview with Power On, the CEO of Oldelval Ricardo Hösel, and the operations manager of the firm, Gastón Gader, They told how the production of Vaca Muerta was changing the work in the carrier.
Is that the product delivered by the firm at its end point radically changed in just a decade given that added almost 10 degrees API (the graduation of the American Petroleum Institute that measures the density of crude oil) and it became a much lighter oil than the traditional Medanito.
How was the transformation process?
As indicated, in 2012 when the first wells of Vaca Muerta began their weight it was really insignificant in the network that had a transport capacity of 36,000 cubic meters per day but that in practice carried around 25,000 (regarding 158,000 barrels per day) due to the productive decline experienced by all the provinces that make up the Neuquén Basin: Río Negro, Neuquén, La Pampa and southern Mendoza.
With the beginning of the great developments of the formation, as is the case of Loma Campana of YPF and Chevron that begins to be developed at At the end of 2013, shale oil gradually began to gain space inside the pipelines.
for 2018 the production of Vaca Muerta had already begun to gain weight and in the records of Oldelval realized that 25% of the crude transported already corresponded to shale oil, while the remaining 75% continued to come from conventional fields, that is, it was the classic Argentine oil: Medanito.
By the shape of the Oldelval lattice, production forms what is known as a “soup”not literally speaking, but it is formed by the mixture of the various oils that are loaded within the same pipeline and that inevitably they mix.
One year later, in 2019, YPF and Tecpetrol inaugurated the first large pipeline specially designed for Vaca Muerta.
This is the line that goes from Loma Campana to Lago Pellegrini and that allowed to improve the evacuation of the production from the very heart of Vaca Muerta to the Oldelval trunk network that ends at Oiltanking Ebytem, in Puerto Rosales.
dead cow speeds up
The acceleration of Vaca Muerta occurred following the pandemicdriven by a double positive effect of an international context of high prices that boosted interest in exports and a notable reduction in costs that was achieved in the heat of the hard blow that caused the quarantine and the collapse of consumption.
Hösel reflected this strong jump by indicating that “In just two years, the amount of oil we transported in Oldelval increased by 65%.”
And he recalled that “the first expansion we did was the Vivaldi plan, which took the transport capacity from 36,000 to 42,000 cubic meters”, that is, it went from 226,400 to 264,200 barrels, adding almost 50,000 barrels per day.
In just 8 months that extension was small before the voracious growth of production and led not only the firm to launch the call for the Duplicate plan, but rather, given the excess demand for capacity from companies, finally ended up running the Duplicate Plus programwith much more volume than initially anticipated.
This plan will allow at the beginning of next year the network can deliver 72,000 cubic meters in Puerto Rosales (regarding 450,000 barrels) and 86,000 cubic meters (541,000) in early 2025 when completed.
A noticeable change in composition
While that program is still in full swing, Gader explained that currently the “soup” that is transported oil inside the Oldelval pipeline has turned upside down in its composition. While five years ago, 25% of the crude carried by the pipeline corresponded to shale, today only 25% is conventional and the 75% remaining comes from the fields of Vaca Muerta.
This led to a radical change in the final product received in Puerto Rosales and from there departs both for the large Buenos Aires refineries and for export.
“10 years ago the API graduation that was delivered in Puerto Rosales was 33 degrees”, Gader told Power On.
This value is in line with the graduation of conventional oil from the Neuquén Basin.the Medanito, whose API graduation ranges from 30 to 35 degrees.
“Today we are at 42 degrees API,” he revealed. the company’s operations manager, thus revealing that within a decade, the API ranking rose 9 degrees, which marks a much lighter oil than conventional Medanito.
“There is a mixture within what is transported, from conventional to shales that are so light that they almost look like a benzine,” Hösel said. Gadel explained that “developments producing gas and associated liquids have much lighter oil and in the final mix it gives this, 42 degrees API”.
Another modification to come
In a few more months, very possibly between April and May, the reactivation of the Trasandino Pipeline (Otasa), a line that directly connects the north of Neuquén, from Puesto Hernández, with the Chilean town of Talcahuano.
This line has a minimum volume that is required for its operation given the prevailing temperature conditions at the Andean crossing and that is why Oldelval is preparing to revert a part of its route to be able to send some 50,000 barrels per day.
But here once more the type of oil is important once more. “Chile has a requirement for a crude that must be below 40 to 42 degrees API”, Gader indicated.
Which is why Hösel explained that “It will be sending in the section to be reversed, from Crucero Catriel, a large part of what is the conventional oil production of Río Negro”.
A change that will impact once more on the final graduation that the crude oil delivered in Puerto Rosales will have, and that although no one manages to change its name since it is an internationally recognized type, with the changes that Vaca Muerta has already generated in the classic oil of Argentina It’s at least time to rename it a Medanito 2.0.
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