Two labor unions have announced separate strikes over the next week in Vaca Muerta, Argentina’s biggest shale play, to protest layoffs and unpaid wages, threatening to slow oil and natural gas production after reaching record levels in June.

The strikes are set for July 25 and then July 30 and Aug. 1, according to separate statements by the two unions.

The first will be held by a truckers’ union in Neuquén and Río Negro, two provinces at the heart of Vaca Muerta’s activity in northern Patagonia.

The truckers are demanding payment of past wages from NRG Argentina, a major supplier of frack sand to Vaca Muerta that fell into financial problems earlier this year after expanding its operations to meet demand for its product that didn’t grow as fast as it had expected. NRG said it had expected demand to reach 1.5 million mt/year of sand in 2024, but it only got to 600,000 mt/year that year, adding that costs in local currency terms have surged with a strengthening of the peso against the US dollar this year.

NRG filed for protection from creditors in June to avert bankruptcy, saying it has some $50 million in liabilities.

Some of this money is owed to truckers, who move the sand from NRG’s mine in the central province of Entre Ríos to Vaca Muerta in Neuquén, a trip of some 1,300 km.

“Our patience has worn out,” Gustavo Sol, the truckers’ union secretary general, said July 24 in a statement.
A two-day strike

The other strike will be held for 48 hours by the Union of Private Oil Workers in Neuquén, Río Negro y La Pampa to protest more than 1,200 layoffs and 2,000 suspensions in Vaca Muerta’s fields.

“While they are breaking production records, they are leaving thousands of workers unemployed,” Marcelo Rucci, the union’s secretary general, told the NeuquénWeb news service late July 23. “The companies don’t seem to realize that all the records come thanks to the efforts of a lot of people.”

The strike will affect production, his union said late July 23 on X.

Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s largest shale plays, led a 17.8% surge in Argentina’s oil production to a 24-year high of 778,800 b/d in June from 660,959 b/d in the year-earlier month, while natural gas output rose 5.8% to a 22-year high of 158.8 million cu m/d over the same period, the national Energy Secretariat said July 23.

“Vaca Muerta will only be possible with the workers on board,” Rucci said. “Without them, there is no future.”

Argentina’s total crude production is expected to increase 15.8% to 830,000 b/d this year from 717,000 b/d in 2024, according to a forecast from the Argentinian Chamber of Hydrocarbons Exploration and Production. That would take it close to the country’s all-time record of 847,000 b/d in 1998.

Vaca Muerta is expected to lead this growth, with most forecasts suggesting it could produce 1 million b/d of oil and 250 million cu m/d of gas in 2030.
Source: Platts