Argentina - closing the deal
Argentina will spend 2017 trying to come good on its upstream promise
The honeymoon is over for Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri. In 2016, the new president was given plenty of slack; a recognition of the mess he inherited and the wide-ranging reforms needed. In 2017, Macri and his team of technocrats will need to show results: that means getting the promising energy sector, especially shale development, on track and winning back investors. Market-pricing reforms should move ahead in 2017. Oil producers in Argentina were largely shielded from the collapse in international crude prices, as the government propped prices up well above international levels - most recently at $67 a barrel. That will have to start moving down towards the prevailing internationa
Also in this section
5 March 2026
Gas is a central pillar of Colombia’s energy system, but declining production poses a significant challenge, and LNG will be increasingly needed as a stopgap. A recent major offshore gas discovery offers hope, but policy improvements are also required, Camilo Morales, secretary general of Naturgas, the Colombian gas association, tells Petroleum Economist
4 March 2026
The continent’s inventories were already depleted before conflict erupted in the Middle East, causing prices to spike ahead of the crucial summer refilling season
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat






