The addition of the San Matías Pipeline to the Large Investment Incentive Regime authorized an estimated US$1.3 billion investment to connect Vaca Muerta gas with Río Negro's Atlantic coast. The project does not end with transportation: it was designed as the onshore link in a system that will carry hydrocarbons from Tratayén to floating liquefaction units installed in the San Matías Gulf.
The planned route will extend 472.5 kilometers to San Antonio Oeste and will run mostly through Río Negro territory. Its capacity was presented at about 27 million cubic meters per day, while the technical design allows for up to 28 million. The entire flow will be dedicated to Southern Energy's liquefied natural gas export project, which has been assigned potential foreign sales of around US$2.5 billion a year.
San Matías Pipeline will develop the line within a scheme led by Southern Energy. The consortium includes Pan American Energy, YPF, Pampa Energía, Harbour Energy and Golar LNG, and had already been admitted to the RIGI program. The new approval therefore links Neuquén production, linear infrastructure in Río Negro and the commercial platform that will seek to sell LNG in international markets.
On the coast, two floating units will process the gas. Hilli Episeyo will have an estimated LNG capacity of 2.4 million tonnes a year, while the unit known as MKII will reach 3.5 million. The pipeline must continuously feed both vessels, turning the flow from the Neuquén basin into raw material for liquefaction and shipment.
The scale of the operation determines the line's specifications. The project calls for 36-inch carbon-steel pipes buried nearly one meter underground, along with sectional valves, fiscal metering stations and systems for launching and retrieving inspection devices. In San Antonio Oeste, a station will measure the gas before transferring it to Southern Energy's infrastructure.
The pressure hub will be located in Allen, where a compressor plant measuring about 260 by 140 meters will be built. It will have three gas-turbine-driven units in a configuration of two active machines and one backup and will be able to raise pressure to 98 kg/cm²g. That facility will sustain the movement of fuel from the production area to the coast along the entire route.
Much of the gas pipeline will run parallel to the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur pipeline through hydrocarbon areas, rural land and productive zones. Using a corridor already assigned to energy infrastructure is intended to limit the opening of new territorial strips, although the line will still require its own safety, metering and operating works. The two projects together make Río Negro the physical exit route for both oil and gas.
The stated schedule estimated about 24 months of construction, with a projected start in May 2026 and completion in April 2028, as well as demand for about 1,500 workers during that phase. RIGI approval clears the incentive framework, but the outcome depends on the pipeline, compression, metering and floating units entering service in coordination: only then will Neuquén gas complete its journey to LNG export.
