Total and Wintershall will invest 2.1 billion dollars in natural gas in Argentina

The French oil company Total and the German group Wintershall will invest each nearly a billion dollars in Argentina over the next five years to support the production of natural gas in the country, said Friday the Government of Argentina in a statement.

Total and Wintershall will respectively invest 1.1 billion and $ 1 billion in projects that will increase by 3.1% annual production of natural gas to Argentina between 2013 and 2017, according to this press release. With these investments, production is expected to increase by 12 million meters cubic per day.

The Argentina make massive efforts to attract investment in its energy sector.

Oil and gas production has declined in recent years while demand has strongly increased, making the Argentina a net importer of energy and forcing the Government to spend billions of dollars each year on imports of gas and gasoline. In 2011, the country has spent more than $ 9 billion to import energy.

Last year, the Government nationalized the majority owned by Repsol in the Argentine group YPF (YPF, YPFD.BA).

 

Reuters