Argentina’s Vaca Muerta: Growth engine built for the next decade

Deep, low-cost inventory and resilient well productivity support a decade-plus development runway

CALGARY, Alberta (Sep. 1, 2026) — Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, has released a new play fundamentals report that finds Vaca Muerta has the resource depth and well productivity to support more than a decade of continued oil and gas development in Argentina.

New delineation and licensing have expanded the commercially viable inventory identified across Vaca Muerta. The play is now estimated to contain 8.7 Bbbl of sub-$55 WTI oil resource and 109 Tcf of sub-$3 Henry Hub gas resource. Under the development assumptions analyzed in the report, Vaca Muerta has more than 10 years of remaining oil and gas inventory life, providing a substantial runway for continued development. Its remaining inventory, however, still trails that of the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico and the Montney in western Canada.

Well performance reinforces that inventory story. Degradation in oil productivity has stabilized, with wells expected to continue delivering estimated ultimate recoveries (EURs) near 110 bbl/ft for the foreseeable future. Outside the core, oil productivity has remained resilient since 2021 at 98 Mbbl/1,000 ft, 19% below core acreage, although higher costs weigh on economics because of more limited infrastructure and scale. In gas-weighted windows, productivity reaches approximately 2.3 Bcf/1,000 ft, outperforming the North American gas plays benchmarked in the report.

The principal constraint to realizing the play’s full growth potential remains market access, particularly for gas, where additional export capacity and LNG development will be required to unlock more of the resource base.

“Vaca Muerta’s growth potential and low-cost competitiveness are a rare combination in today’s upstream market. We believe the play will attract increasing attention from investors and operators alike, regardless of commodity-price levels,” said EIR director Andy McConn.

Key takeaways:

EIR estimates Vaca Muerta contains 8.7 Bbbl of sub-$55 WTI oil resource and 109 Tcf of sub-$3 Henry Hub gas resource.
EIR’s inventory analysis indicates more than 10 years of remaining oil and gas development under the report’s assumed development scenarios.
Oil productivity degradation has stabilized, with EIR expecting EURs near 110 bbl/ft for the foreseeable future.
Oil productivity outside the core has remained resilient at 98 Mbbl/1,000 ft since 2021, while gas-weighted windows produce approximately 2.3 Bcf/1,000 ft.
Continued growth, particularly for gas, will depend on greater access to export markets.

EIR’s analysis pulls from a variety of products including Enverus ONE™.

Play Fundamentals is an EIR research series that dives into a key geographical basin or technology. As a collective series with each play updated annually, it includes technical research and interactive maps, investment opportunities, benchmarking, macro trends and basin analytics, empowering readers to make intelligent connections and, overall, more informed investment, operating and strategic decisions. It is considered the most in-depth research EIR offers and among the most-read analysis series in the energy industry.

Full copies of EIR research reports cannot be distributed to members of the media. Journalists interested in learning more about this analysis are encouraged to use the Request Media Interview button on the Enverus Newsroom page to schedule a time to meet with one of our expert analysts, who can provide context, insight, and deeper discussion of the findings.