Currently the largest conventional producer of natural gas in South America, Argentina closely follows both China and the US in terms of shale gas reserves and is one of the top five countries with technically recoverable shale oil resources.
Not only has Argentina expressed interest in using fracking to exploit its supply of natural gas, it has partnered with US energy giant Chevron to exploit local shale oil plays. In July 2013, Argentina’s state-owned energy company YPF announced it had inked a US$1.5 billion deal with Chevron to drill more than 100 nonconventional wells in 2013 and 2014 in the vast Vaca Muerta shale field. Vaca Muerta is believed to be one of the largest shale basins outside of North America, with estimated resource reserves of 22.5 billion barrels.
