Balbina Griffa has a Master’s Degree in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the Universidad del Rey Juan Carlos; She is a specialist in Electricity and Natural Gas Markets from ITBA; and Graduate in Economics from the UBA. In addition to working as an undergraduate teacher and researcher at the Center for Research in Energy Economics and Planning (CIEPE), she is the current Academic Secretary at the EEyN. She will be coordinating, along with Mg. Marcelo Kloster, the new University Diploma in Economics and Management of New Energies and Technologies of the EEyN, which begins in August.
What is the energy matrix of a country and how is it built?
The energy matrix is the combination of the primary energy sources used in a country. This matrix is determined by several factors, we can specify three: the first is security of supply and, in this sense, it is key to take advantage of each country’s own energy resources. In this, Argentina has advantages since we have a large quantity and variety of energy resources in our territory. Secondly, each country will seek to supply itself with energy as cheaply as possible, since the energy sector is a primary input for both homes and industries, businesses and all economic activities carried out; and the third factor, no less important and increasingly important, has to do with minimizing carbon dioxide emissions associated with the matrix. Therefore, the balance between these three variables – security of supply, value of energy and environmental care – is the challenge for public policy makers.
What is the importance of natural gas in our country?
Natural gas is a very important energy source for Argentina, it is the main component of its primary energy matrix, explaining more than 50% of it. What does this mean? More than half of the energy the country requires to “function” is natural gas. The second place is occupied by oil, with around 30%.
What is the importance of natural gas in the energy matrix of neighboring countries?
Among our neighboring countries, Chile, for example, has a more diversified matrix, showing an approximate quarter share of Oil and Biomass and then around 20% Natural Gas and Coal, although with a higher share of imports. While oil, hydraulic energy and other renewable energy sources occupy an important place in Brazil’s primary energy matrix. In none of them is gas an energy source of the relevance it has in Argentina and this is largely related to the availability of resources in each country.
What is gas consumption like in Argentina? How is the demand composed?
Precisely, the fact that natural gas occupies such an important role in the primary energy matrix has its correlation in the multiple activities that use it as energy in our country. In other countries, where there is no extension of natural gas networks as in ours, homes are heated with other sources of energy, electricity, biomass. Just as in Argentina a large number of homes are heated and cooked using natural gas from the network, businesses and industries are supplied with natural gas from the network, a significant percentage of electricity generation in Argentina also works from natural gas. . To organize ideas, approximately industries and power plants explain 30% each of the demand for natural gas and households about 25%.
What is gas production like in our country?
Currently, Argentina’s natural gas production is concentrated mainly in the Neuquén basin (around 70% of the total). This region is where “Vaca muerte” is located and the good performance of the basin has been driven by unconventional production.
The second most important basin is the Austral, accounting for 20% more of the total production, and in this case, production is driven by the off-shore.
Is gas imported?
Argentina imports natural gas by pipeline from Bolivia throughout the year, but shipments have been reducing year after year due to the maturation of its fields. We also import natural gas in ships. This gas is liquefied so that its transportation is economically viable, which is why it is called Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Once it reaches the destination, it is gasified again and injected into the network. LNG imports are carried out in the months of greatest demand, which are the winter months. In our country, based on climatic conditions and the role of households in the demand for natural gas, the demand curve for this energy has a strong seasonality in the winter.
What place does gas occupy in Argentina’s energy sovereignty?
I return to the concepts of the beginning, how a country’s primary energy matrix is built and the relevance of having its own natural resources. European countries were pioneers in developing electricity generation from renewable energies, of course with the objective of reducing CO2 emissions but also with a clear objective of reducing their dependence on energy supplies from third countries. In this sense, Argentina has strong advantages because it not only has hydrocarbons (and therefore its role is key in the local energy matrix) but it also has important resources for the development of renewable energies. By this I mean that, in our case, energy sovereignty is not a problem of availability of natural resources, as is the case in a large number of countries, but is more linked to the exploitation strategies of these resources. That is where a company like YPF, with a national flag that participates in the entire energy sector, invests and innovates, is a key actor in setting the direction of the sector.
What future expectations are there regarding production?
Vaca Muerta has been showing that it has the potential to be a great supplier of hydrocarbons, mainly natural gas, but also oil. For some time now it can be read in newspaper news, in expert columns, in sectoral reports, that is, there is practically no dissent regarding the wealth of hydrocarbon resources that said region has. There is also consensus on the limitation that transportation capacity represents, that is to say that, until the investments that expand natural gas transportation capacity are made, there is a real limit on the amount of m3 /day that can be placed in the market.
Will Argentina be able to be self-sufficient and export balances?
It is a difficult question to answer in a few lines. First, the limitations I described in the previous answer should be resolved – increasing investments and transport capacity – to allow placing larger volumes of natural gas on the market. After that, the determinants of exports appear, and at this point there is no consensus among experts regarding the level of success to be achieved. I believe that the main determinants of the evolution of natural gas exports will have to do with (a) the conditions of stability or the economic/regulatory signals that private companies expect to make the decision to build a liquefaction plant that allows exporting LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) to the world, (b) whether Argentina can maintain competitive prices compared to other countries that also export LNG, (c) how global demand for LNG will evolve in the coming decades, (d) whether Argentina should be 100% self-sufficient or a strategy of supplying domestic demand with domestic supply up to a certain point and covering peaks – of residential demand in winter – with imports, to mention some of the determinants. In short, there are determinants that are settled with decisions and planning in Argentina, and others that depend on external factors on which different scenarios are proposed and success will depend on which one is closest to reality.
Balbina Griffa
He has a Master’s degree in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the Universidad del Rey Juan Carlos; She is a specialist in Electricity and Natural Gas Markets from ITBA and has a degree in Economics from UBA.
At UNSAM, she is Academic Secretary of the School of Economics and Business and a member of the Research Center in Economics and Energy Planning (CIEPE) of the School of Economics and Business, where she also works as an undergraduate professor. She will be coordinating, along with Mg. Marcelo Kloster, the new University Diploma in Economics and Management of New Energies and Technologies of the EEyN, which begins in August.
Balbina Griffa, EEyN Extension, EEyN Extension Secretariat
Note updated June 27, 2024
