THE NATIONAL SECRETARY OF ENERGY VISITED TGS WORKS IN VACA MUERTA
The conditioning plant that TGS is building in Tratayén received the visit of the National Secretary of Energy, Gustavo Lopetegui. The plant tour — hosted by TGS’ top executives— was also attended by Alejandro Monteiro, Neuquén Province’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and Norberto Bruno, Neuquén Province’s Minister of Economy and Infrastructure
TGS is investing USD 300 million to develop great scope works in Vaca Muerta, which mainly involve the building of a 148 km-pipeline that will gather a volume of up to 60 MMm3/d and a treatment plant located in Tratayén, Neuquén, which will treat 5MMm3/d in a first stage.
The pipeline is divided into two sections: firstly, the Southern Vaca Muerta Pipeline of a 65 km length, 33 km of which are of 36” whereas the rest are of 30”— with a maximum operating pressure of 97 Kg/cm2M— and secondly, the Northern Vaca Muerta Pipeline, which adds 83 Km of 36” pipeline. The system has two measurement and regulation stations that connect it to the two main TGS and TGN transportation systems.
TGS has already entered agreements for the transportation of gas from seven producing areas of the Province of Neuquén and will be adding new blocks during this year.
These works generate an infrastructure of scale, with the capacity of meeting all producers’ transportation and conditioning needs, avoiding individual solutions for the transportation of producers’ gas to independent transportation systems, with a vision adjusted to their own needs, thus generating a shared infrastructure that can optimize resources and keep producers focused on their specific gas field exploitation role.
These works represent an essential contribution to the development of shale gas in the Vaca Muerta area, as it allows the injection of gas incremental production to the transportation systems and will expand the gas market scale, increasing the chances of replacing alternative liquid fuels and generating gas exports opportunities after having met domestic market needs.