Tenaris SIAT, part of Grupo Techint, dismissed 150 contract workers at its Valentín Alsina plant in Lanús after losing key tenders linked to Vaca Muerta and Southern Energy's liquefied natural gas export project.
The measure affects contract personnel rather than permanent staff. Of the 200 workers under that modality, three quarters will leave the payroll as of July 1, while the facility keeps around 150 permanent employees.
The Buenos Aires plant is strategic because Tenaris is the only local producer of this type of pipe for the energy industry. During construction of the Perito Moreno gas pipeline, the plant employed more than 550 unionised workers and operated three shifts to meet pipe demand.
The situation changed after major works ended. Since late 2025, after completion of the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur pipeline, the plant had faced lower activity and had applied rotating suspensions for several months.
The main blow came with the loss of the tender to supply pipes for the gas pipeline between Vaca Muerta and Río Negro, awarded to India's Welspun. The bid deprived Valentín Alsina of a demand source that, according to the company itself, could have sustained production for around nine months.
Techint, through the Techint-Sacde consortium, also lost the tender to build the 471-kilometre gas pipeline between Neuquén and the Río Negro coast, part of the same Southern Energy project. That work was awarded to the Victor Contreras-SICIM consortium.
Southern Energy's project involves Pan American Energy, YPF, Pampa Energía, Harbour Energy and Golar LNG, and foresees large-scale investment to export LNG from the Atlantic coast. The industrial paradox is that an energy expansion of this scale does not necessarily guarantee work for local suppliers.
For Buenos Aires, the dismissals in Valentín Alsina expose a deeper tension among competitiveness, private procurement, energy policy and industrial employment. Losing contracts in Vaca Muerta does not stay in Neuquén: it also translates into less formal work in the productive suburbs.
