Oleoductos del Valle (‘OldelVal’)
As of December 31, 2022, Pampa holds a 2.1% direct interest in OldelVal. OldelVal operates main oil pipelines providing access to Allen, in the Comahue area, and the Allen – Puerto Rosales oil pipeline, evacuating the oil produced in the Neuquina Basin to Puerto Rosales (a port in the City of Bahía Blanca) and supplying of the Plaza Huincul and Luján de Cuyo distilleries located in the pipeline’s area of influence.
In 2022, the total transported volume was 47,583 m3/day, equivalent to 109.2 million bbl, 38% higher vs. 2021. Oil transportation from Allen to Puerto Rosales reached 39,926 m3/day on average, and transportation to the refineries located in the provinces of Neuquén and Mendoza totaled an average of 2,231 m3/day and 5,426 m3/day, respectively. It is worth highlighting that, by the end of 2022, this tranche’s transportation capacity was 34,560 m3 /day without friction-reducing agents and 43,000 m3 /day with friction-reducing agents.
Given te production growth in the Neuquina Basin, OldelVal launched the Duplicar expansion project, consisting of 525 km of pipelines laid throughout three provinces: Río Negro, La Pampa and Buenos Aires, and a new terminal station in Puerto Rosales. This project requires an approximate US$1,180 million investment, and works, divided into two stages, are expected to take 22 months. The project was financed by the domestic capital market, and in December 2022, OldelVal executed contracts with producers under the Ship or Pay modality for the new available capacity.
Finally, on December 20, 2022, OldelVal entered into a 10-year operation and maintenance services agreement for a 16-inch diameter, 103-km long pipeline from the Sierras Blancas field -located at San Patricio del Chañar, province of Neuquén- to the pumping station at Allen -Province of Río Negro- with the private consortium made up by Shell Argentina S.A., Pan American Energy S.L., Argentina Branch, and Pluspetrol S.A.