Midstream, storage and GyP channel services
The core of the midstream —pipeline transport— is a regulated, vertically integrated oligopoly: you do not attack it. ⛔ And the short window this business once had —bridge trucking at ~USD 15 a barrel while the pipeline was saturated— is closed thesis. It was not closed by the new pipeline but by the old one: the trunk concessionaire took its capacity from 36,000 to 86,000 cubic metres a day and announced further expansions to take it to 120,000 prob press. With one caveat: in that same presentation, from November 2025, the company warned that the trunk line was saturating again in May and June 2026 and that this is why it was staging those works between May and August prob press. Whether that brought trucks back, no source publishes unconf. On top of that the truck could never compete —the official tariff for the same stretch is USD 1.53 a barrel unconf until the resolution is registered as a source—. What remains are the edges: pipeline maintenance, third-party storage and the provincial company's channel, and none of them publishes a price.
On this page
Who really pays?
The pipeline charges a regulated tariff, but the pipeline is not the customer for satellite services. ⛔ And one door has closed: the truck's. The ones that remain, with their real buyer:
⛔ this is no longer an evacuation window. Trunk capacity went from 36,000 to 86,000 cubic metres a day verif and the pipeline costs USD 1.53 a barrel against the truck's USD 15 estim. What remains is the other half of what the 2024 article on trucks said: they also «respond to the lack of infrastructure in remote areas» prob. It is structural logistics, not a peak, and its volume is not published thesis.
Producers without storage of their own that need a buffer or balancing. The incumbent at the export terminal is taking its capacity to 780,000 cubic metres with six new tanks that come online in stages prob; the intermediate buffer at the head of the basin is less covered. ⚠️ But the price of the service is an international benchmark, with no published local value: no figure can be put on it.
The pipeline owner and the project company contract the service thesis; the expansion works are awarded to an EPC (a large contractor won Duplicar Norte, ~USD 400 M) prob. The EPC is sold construction services, not the concession. Integrity/inspection and fiscal metering are their own niche (see the pipeline integrity niche): here it is O&M + engineering, without double-counting.
The provincial company enters with a carried interest. ⚠️ of the fifteen areas tendered, only eight received a bid —twenty bids from ten bidders—, seven drew no interest and as of 17 September 2026 none had been awarded: the financial envelopes were opened on 16 September 2026, with more than USD 180 million in bonuses and more than USD 230 million of committed exploration, and the pre-award is still pending. The minimum access bonus of USD 500,000 is in the tender documents, as is the obligation to fund 100% of development and operating costs, including the State's share, with a recovery capped at 80% of the provincial company's share; exploration is not recovered.
Which projects move this demand
Why this project exists: the expansion of the Perito Moreno Gas Pipeline (ex-GPNK) by +14 MMm3/d of capacity…
see the project →The largest natural gas liquids project in Argentina's history: a fractionation plant for 2.7 million tonnes a year of propane…
see the project →When the window opens
Two numbers have to be watched separately, not subtracted: how much capacity the pipe has and how much is produced. And there is a third clock that is not physical: in the provincial company's channel, of the fifteen areas tendered eight received bids and their financial envelopes, opened on 16 September 2026, commit more than USD 230 million of exploration; as of 17 September none had been awarded.
See the evidence
See the evidence
This is not a future risk: it happened. Trunk capacity reached 86,000 cubic metres a day with the Duplicar project verif the concessionaire's site.
See the evidence
The trunk line belongs to the operators: the more integration, the less service to third parties. thesis
Of the fifteen areas tendered in Round 1/2026, only eight received a bid and seven drew no interest.
See the evidence
The opportunity in depth
The opportunity in depth
Maintenance, operation and engineering of the new pipelines, contracted when each project moves from construction to operation. And those dates exist: the trunk line's northern stretch enters service in the first quarter of 2027 verif; as of 5 October 2026 the moorings for the Punta Colorada oil pipeline had already reached Río Negro and the first export is expected in early 2027. You compete by contract, not by concession. (Integrity inspection and metering are their own market: they are on the pipeline integrity page.)
Third-party storage at the head of the basin, monetizing throughput, handling and blending, not the tank rental. ⚠️ The price of that service is not published in the country.
Technical and financial partner in the provincial company's channel. ⚠️ And the size, in full: fifteen areas were tendered, only eight received a bid, seven drew no interest and as of 17 September 2026 none had been awarded. And it is not cheap: an access bonus of at least USD 500,000 and funding 100% of development and operating costs, including the State's share, recoverable interest-free, only if there is production and capped at 80% of the provincial company's share; exploration is not recovered verif.
Logistics for areas with no gathering, which is what remains of the truck: the source itself says those vehicles also respond to «the lack of infrastructure in remote areas». It is not a window market, it is structural logistics — and nobody publishes its volume.
When you get paid, and what blocks it
already in
split
Monopoly on the Allen-Puerto Rosales trunk line, with a regulated tariff and the operators as owners thesis. ⭐ And it is the actor that closed the truck window thesis: the Duplicar project took trunk capacity to 86,000 m³ a day verif, from some 36,000 before the expansions unconf, and in November 2025 the company announced staged expansions at pumping stations to take it to 120,000 prob.
See the evidence
The 437 km Allen-Punta Colorada oil pipeline prob, with two single-point moorings prob. ⚠️ It is not in service: as of 5 October 2026 the two moorings had already reached the Puerto de San Antonio Este and will be installed off Punta Colorada, some seven kilometres from the coast; the 721 pipes for the subsea line have arrived and its construction has begun prob. The operator expects the first export in early 2027.
Perito Moreno gas pipeline: USD 550 M declared and 513 M eligible under the RIGI (Resolución 676/2026), to take it from 21 to 35 MMm³/d prob. NGL project: USD 3,000 M, 2.7 million tonnes a year, all output for export prob. The products pipeline is some 577 km long according to TGS's material-fact filing of 10-Jun-2026, although its 3-Aug results presentation says 477 km verif; the 573 km that circulated match the length of the Perito Moreno gas pipeline thesis.
Expansion inaugurated in June 2025, with an investment of close to USD 600 M prob: six new 50,000 m³ tanks prob to take capacity from 480,000 to 780,000 m³ and a 2,000-metre jetty. At the inauguration two of the six tanks were operating; the rest come online in stages prob.
See the remaining player
State partner with a carried interest. ⚠️ Round 1/2026 tendered fifteen areas but only eight received a bid —twenty bids from ten bidders— and the other seven drew no interest. As of 17 September 2026 none had been awarded: the financial envelopes were opened on 16 September 2026 and added up to more than USD 180 million in bonuses to the provincial Treasury and more than USD 230 million in committed exploration investment verif; as of 17 September the pre-award report and the provincial company's board resolution were still pending. The minimum access bonus of USD 500,000 is in the tender documents verif.
The jobs it createsTransport and terminal/tank operation jobs; the GyP channel opens the door to SMEs as partners of the provincial State. thesis
Pipeline transport: a vertically integrated regulated oligopoly, with capacity committed in advance and growing besides. Not addressable, and less so than before. estim
The edges: maintenance and engineering for the new pipelines, third-party storage at the head of the basin, the provincial company's channel and logistics for areas with no gathering. ⛔ None of the four publishes a local price, so no figure is put on them. unconf
⛔ No entry range is published: the four remaining edges are contracted one by one and none has a published local price. The truck window, which was the only one with a verified unit and price, has closed. unconf
Why we do not put a number on it The only stretch with a verified unit and price was bridge trucking, and this pass withdrew it: its volume is from 2024 and its price is 9.8 times the tariff of a pipeline that now does have capacity. The four remaining edges —pipeline maintenance, third-party storage, the provincial company's channel and logistics for areas with no gathering— are contracted one by one and none publishes a local price.
calculate it
The number is our own estimate. The calculation, step by step, is below.
The full calculation, step by step
Concentration High at the core and higher than when this page was written: pipeline transport is a vertically integrated regulated oligopoly with capacity committed in advance, and its capacity has just grown 140% —from 36,000 to 86,000 m³ a day on the trunk line—, with more work under way. That leaves no room for an alternative evacuation service. At the edges —third-party storage, pipeline maintenance, the provincial company's channel— concentration is low, but none of the three publishes a local price.
The rule that moves it
What moves this market is not a reform but the pipeline boom: the Punta Colorada line and the gas pipeline expansion are projects under the large-investment regime, and by multiplying the outlets they generate demand for operation, maintenance and engineering. ⛔ And a point that is often confused: the provincial register of hydrocarbon companies is not the service supplier's entry door — the decree requires registration of whoever bids for permits or concessions, and the provincial channel's tender documents require it of every bidder for an area. For everyone else what applies is Neuquén supplier certification, which is free.
See the underlying reading
The underlying policy that opens up this demand. It is the same inference declared by the rules and the program pillars pushing in this direction.
stability → long-term investmentSee the full legal grounds
Where the number comes from
USD 1.53 a barrel by pipeline, against ~USD 15 by truck: the truck costs 9.8 times more for the same stretch
See the calculation, the variables and how it was validated
What follows is not a market calculation: it is the arithmetic showing why this page withdrew its headline figure. The formula we published held; its two factors no longer do.
⛔ None of the remaining stretches has a figure. Pipeline maintenance and engineering, third-party storage and the provincial company's channel are contracted one by one and publish no local price. The exploratory ceiling this page once cited rested on international benchmarks, so it is not published either: it is not a market size.
The number rests on a few variables. The formula shows how it moves when each one changes; and each variable carries its freshness seal — how often it is worth revisiting. estim
The figure this market seemed to have —~USD 172 M a year of bridge trucking— does not hold, and the arithmetic is in plain sight. The multiplication is correct; its two factors are not. The volume, 31,450 barrels a day, is a snapshot from June 2024, when the trunk line expansion had not yet been completed, and no 2026 source publishes a volume of crude by truck to replace it. And the USD 15 a barrel price is not a margin but a penalty: the official tariff for the same stretch is USD 9.6011 per cubic metre, which divided by the 6.2898 barrels in a cubic metre gives USD 1.53 a barrel, almost ten times less. We read the capacity in service today on the concessionaire's own site. ⛔ Between inventing a number and saying there is none, here there is no number.
Coverage: the Ley 3338 public register of Certified Neuquén Suppliers, counted in full on 14 September 2026: 1,029 companies, with 161 in logistics and transport and 116 in operation and maintenance · Sep 14, 2026 · not reviewed: the trade in the register is declared by the company itself and nobody audits it —the only registrant under «midstream» is a winery—, certifying is voluntary and the operators do not publish who they award to: the gap is stated among the certified firms, never «in the province»
How to cite this figure: Despegue (2026). Midstream, storage and GyP channel services · Neuquén. despegueargentina.com/en/neuquen/midstream-evacuacion-crudo · terms of use
Neighbouring marketsOne market in the same group, from USD 280 to USD 520 M a year
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