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Released August 08, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--TotalEnergies SE (Courbevoie, France) recently sold its 45% operated interests in the Rincon La Ceniza and La Escalonada shale oil and gas blocks in Argentina's Vaca Muerta for a total of US$500 million. Both projects are in their pilot development phases.
Total's partners in the assets are Gas y Petroleo de Neuquen (10%) and O&G Development Limited S.A. (45%), which is owned by Shell plc (London, England).
"The sale of Rincon La Ceniza and La Escalonada blocks is part of our active portfolio management strategy," said Javier Rielo, the senior vice president of exploration and production in the Americas at TotalEnergies, in a press release. "TotalEnergies remains fully committed to Argentina, where it operates a large unconventional area of 183,000 net acres in the Vaca Muerta play, after the divestment of these two blocks, which represented around 20% of our net acreage in that play."
Despite the sale of the two assets, the company owns stakes in Vaca Muerta's Aguada Pichana and San Roque, which produced 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) for TotalEnergies last year.
Offshore Argentina, the company holds a 37.5% interest in the Cuenca Marina Austral in the Tierra del Fuego province, where it operates six producing offshore gas fields: Hidra, Kaus, Carina, Aries, Vega Pleyade, and Fenix.
Fenix started production last year and has a capacity of 10 million cubic meters per day. Together, the six gas fields have a supply of nearly 16 million cubic meters of gas to Argentina per day. Their production is treated at the onshore Río Cullen and Cañadón Alfa plants in Tierra de Fuego.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Plant Database can read detailed profiles of the Río Cullen and Cañadón Alfa plants.
Since last year, companies such as Petronas (Kuala Lumpur), ExxonMobil Corporation (Spring, Texas) and Apache Corporation (Houston, Texas) also have sold their assets in the shale reservoir to other Argentine companies.
Despite their exit from Vaca Muerta, other companies, such as Argentina's state-owned YPF (Buenos Aries), Shell and Vista Energy (Houston), are heavily investing in developing new upstream assets in the shale area as well as new pipelines and terminals to export the growing production.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Total's partners in the assets are Gas y Petroleo de Neuquen (10%) and O&G Development Limited S.A. (45%), which is owned by Shell plc (London, England).
"The sale of Rincon La Ceniza and La Escalonada blocks is part of our active portfolio management strategy," said Javier Rielo, the senior vice president of exploration and production in the Americas at TotalEnergies, in a press release. "TotalEnergies remains fully committed to Argentina, where it operates a large unconventional area of 183,000 net acres in the Vaca Muerta play, after the divestment of these two blocks, which represented around 20% of our net acreage in that play."
Despite the sale of the two assets, the company owns stakes in Vaca Muerta's Aguada Pichana and San Roque, which produced 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) for TotalEnergies last year.
Offshore Argentina, the company holds a 37.5% interest in the Cuenca Marina Austral in the Tierra del Fuego province, where it operates six producing offshore gas fields: Hidra, Kaus, Carina, Aries, Vega Pleyade, and Fenix.
Fenix started production last year and has a capacity of 10 million cubic meters per day. Together, the six gas fields have a supply of nearly 16 million cubic meters of gas to Argentina per day. Their production is treated at the onshore Río Cullen and Cañadón Alfa plants in Tierra de Fuego.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Plant Database can read detailed profiles of the Río Cullen and Cañadón Alfa plants.
Since last year, companies such as Petronas (Kuala Lumpur), ExxonMobil Corporation (Spring, Texas) and Apache Corporation (Houston, Texas) also have sold their assets in the shale reservoir to other Argentine companies.
Despite their exit from Vaca Muerta, other companies, such as Argentina's state-owned YPF (Buenos Aries), Shell and Vista Energy (Houston), are heavily investing in developing new upstream assets in the shale area as well as new pipelines and terminals to export the growing production.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
