Argentina’s biggest shale play has two new owners waiting in the wings. Eni and XRG each signed agreements to buy 32% of the Meseta Buena Esperanza, Aguada Villanueva and Las Tacanas blocks in Vaca Muerta, WorldOil reported on June 29. YPF keeps 36% and stays in charge as operator.
Nothing is final yet. Regulators in Argentina still have to approve both acquisitions.
The ownership picture is tidy because YPF cleaned it up first. Earlier in 2026 the company swapped assets with Pluspetrol and ended up holding all three blocks outright, which set up the three-way division.
What the gas is for
Those blocks are not being bought for their own sake. Eni, XRG and YPF signed a joint development agreement for Argentina LNG earlier this year, and the plan rests on two floating liquefaction facilities with combined capacity of 12 Mtpa. The upstream acreage is supposed to supply the gas those vessels will need. XRG added that the arrangement also lets it monetize condensates produced with the gas.
Vaca Muerta is one of the world’s largest unconventional gas formations, but Argentina has long lacked the export infrastructure to sell its gas at scale. Floating LNG is the proposed answer to that gap.
“Our entry into the Vaca Muerta unconventional basin, alongside YPF and XRG, strengthens Eni’s ability to develop world-scale gas resources and convert them into competitive LNG for international markets,” said Guido Brusco, Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources.
Mohamed Al Aryani, XRG’s president of international gas, struck a similar note. “Argentina has the potential to play an increasingly important role in meeting the world’s growing demand for natural gas,” he said, adding that projects like Argentina LNG will be important to unlocking it.
YPF’s chairman and CEO, Horacio Marín, said that bringing Eni and XRG into the upstream segment strengthens the project’s value chain and moves it toward development on a global scale.
An Abu Dhabi investor spreads out
XRG is young. ADNOC set it up in late 2024 to lead the UAE’s push into natural gas, low-carbon energy and chemicals, and it has since collected stakes in Rio Grande LNG, the Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan, Offshore Block 1 in Turkmenistan, and Area 4 in Mozambique’s Rovuma basin.
The company has said it wants a top-five integrated gas and LNG business, with capacity of 20 to 25 MMtpa by 2035. Argentina supplies the upstream exposure that goal calls for.
Sources
- ADNOC's XRG and Eni each acquire 32% stakes in three Argentina Vaca Muerta gas blocks to advance 12 MMtpa LNG project
- Eni, XRG take Vaca Muerta stakes to advance Argentina LNG project
