TotalEnergies gets offers for potential sale of Argentina shale oil assets

France’s TotalEnergies SE is in talks with at least two suitors who have submitted bids for its shale oil assets in Argentina, according to people familiar with the matter.

Progress with the divestment comes after Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this year that he’d be willing to offload stakes in the fields at the right price.

Total declined to comment.

Crude production in the Vaca Muerta shale formation is growing, topping 442,000 barrels a day in April, 22 percent more than a year earlier. But much of that is being pumped by homegrown companies. 

Global players like Exxon Mobil Corp, Malaysia’s Petronas and Total are exiting as President Javier Milei’s reforms, including looser capital controls, boost valuations for shale acreage. That’s opening a window of opportunity for them to sell and reallocate the capital to priority assets elsewhere.

The oil fields, called La Escalonada and Rincón La Ceniza, lie in an underdeveloped corner of the formation with huge potential, north of the main production hub. Total owns 45 percent of each field and Shell Plc 45 percent; the remaining 10% belongs to provincial oil company GyP del Neuquén.

Total’s Argentine shale gas assets aren’t currently up for sale and the company is even spearheading efforts to turn Argentina into a noteworthy supplier of the fuel to neighbouring Brazil.