Significant progress over the past two years has put the Argentina Vaca Muerta shale play firmly on the map as the unconventional play outside North America. The road to a sustainable and profitable, full development is a lot clearer than it was only 2 years ago thanks to the collective efforts of all the key stakeholders.

The operators have managed to accelerate drilling and completion learning curves, thereby reducing costs to more competitive levels. The federal and provincial governments have pushed for legislation to reduce labor costs and lower importation hurdles. Work on infrastructure improvement is gathering pace and both the unions and people in the local communities are starting to see the opportunities

that a full development of this world-class shale play could bring.

However, much work remains to be done.

Advances in the shale plays in North America keep putting pressure on the need to remain competitive: the global investor always has a choice and it will be thus up to the Vaca Muerta stakeholders to remain proactive and continuously look for ways and means to outsmart the plays in the USA and Canada.

The rock is of exceptional quality, which is a must in a shale play. Further work is needed to close the gap on costs and more can be done to make a Vaca Muerta investment economically more attractive.