IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva visited Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale formation in the southern province of Neuquén on Tuesday, the second day of her visit to the country.
Georgieva toured the Loma Campana field, operated by state energy firmYPF in Neuquén, around 1,200 kilometres south of Buenos Aires, in the heart of the Vaca Muerta formation.
“We showed her first-hand the country’s energy transformation and Argentina’s enormous potential to become a global energy exporter,” YPF President Horacio Marín wrote on X following the visit.
Georgieva arrived at the site accompanied by Economy Minister Luis Caputo.
President Javier Milei did not travel, choosing instead to visit Peru to attend the presidential inauguration of Keiko Fujimori.
“There has been outstanding performance in the oil, gas, mining and agricultural sectors. That strong performance is based on confidence in the Argentine economy,” Georgieva said on Monday at a press conference alongside Caputo at Argentina’s Economy Ministry.
According to YPF, Vaca Muerta holds the world’s second-largest reserves of unconventional natural gas and the fourth-largest reserves of shale oil.
With this potential, Argentina could double its crude oil production to one million barrels per day, generating annual exports worth US$18 billion, according to estimates by the state energy company.
Argentina is also aiming to achieve self-sufficiency in natural gas production.
On Monday evening, the IMF chief attended a dinner with leading Argentine business figures at a Buenos Aires hotel, a source at the fund briefed.
She also led a meeting with students at the Palacio Libertad, which she described as “inspiring” in a post on X.
Argentina, the IMF’s largest debtor, agreed a four-year US$20-billion lending programme with the fund in 2025. It had previously secured a record loan of around US$57 billion in 2018, approved under the administration of former president Mauricio Macri and largely disbursed in 2019.
Following her visit to Argentina, Georgieva will travel to Uruguay, where she is due to meet President Yamandú Orsi on Thursday.
– TIMES/AFP
