Stretching across Neuqu\u00e9n and into the provinces of Mendoza, R\u00edo Negro and La Pampa, the Vaca Muerta formation contains the second-largest shale gas reserves in the world and the fourth-largest unconventional oil reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next door to these vast resources, however, many of the local population still heat their homes and cook with firewood or bottled gas. The scarcity of services in a town rich in hydrocarbons is a daily reality for its now 7,500 inhabitants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a dirt road that crosses the plateau, there is a constant passage of trucks loaded with oil, sand for fracking, and pipes and products for all this industry. To the sides of the track sits the \u201cnew city of A\u00f1elo\u201d, an area that began to be built as part of a plan that envisaged some 30,000 people settling here as a result of the great growth that would be seen following the discovery of shale gas and oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, there are more than 700 families living there who have no gas or sewage connection and, in some cases, no electricity. The water network is supplied by the same aqueduct that YPF, the majority state-owned oil company, built to capture liquid from the Neuqu\u00e9n River and use it for fracking, the extraction process used at Vaca Muerta. But the network does not reach all homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the local dialect, those who live here call it living \u201cabove\u201d, differentiating themselves from those who live \u201cbelow\u201d, in the older part of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the Conquest of the Desert, a military campaign conducted by the Argentine government between 1879 and 1885, in which it seized large tracts of territory in Patagonia, A\u00f1elo was home to Indigenous Pehuenche and Ranquel peoples. In their language the name means a \u201cforgotten place\u201d or \u201cswamp of death\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the major issues for A\u00f1elo is the lack of infrastructure,\u201d acknowledges Milton Morales, the town\u2019s mayor. \u201cOur town was very incipient in 2011. We had just 1,500 inhabitants and it was not designed to grow as it did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Morales, after the discoveries at Vaca Muerta, the municipal government started working on a growth plan for 2030<\/a>. However, the funds promised to accompany the arrival of new inhabitants did not materialise as expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have serious shortcomings, especially with gas provision, which is so contradictory in a place where the largest oil and gas extraction in the country takes place today, and which is regarded as one of the best places in the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2013, after the discovery of Vaca Muerta\u2019s reserves, Miguel Galuccio, then president of YPF, boldly announced: \u201cThe shale boom has begun.\u201d Three months later, on 28 August, the Neuqu\u00e9n legislature approved<\/a> an agreement between YPF and US oil and gas giant Chevron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following this agreement, the Loma Campana block<\/a>, here in A\u00f1elo, became the second most important oil and gas field in the country and the first large-scale unconventional development outside the US and Canada. Vaca Muerta is estimated to have recoverable resources of 308 trillion cubic feet of gas and 16.2 billion barrels of oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Neuqu\u00e9n governor at the time, Jorge Sapag, struck an agreement<\/a> with the national government for compensation of 1 billion pesos (then equivalent to US$180 million) to account for the impacts of the arrival of the hydrocarbon industry. This included 64 public works, mostly for the town of A\u00f1elo, including schools, hospitals, infrastructure and housing. The funds were slow to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only thing we have from the YPF-Chevron agreement is the hospital,\u201d says Morales. \u201cIt is the only thing that has been completed and put into operation. The rest of the projects that were part of the agreement and that were intended to support A\u00f1elo were never implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is estimated that three or four new families arrive every week, lured by the prospect of attractive oil salaries and a job in the hydrocarbon industry. \u201cPeople overestimate Vaca Muerta,\u201d says Morales, questioning the number of people who arrive hoping to find new opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the real estate sector saw fertile ground in A\u00f1elo. Today, the main investments in flats, family homes and hotels come from private investors. Though there is demand for housing, it is often at prices inaccessible to most newcomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, the authorities of A\u00f1elo and Neuqu\u00e9n unveiled a development masterplan to 2030, a project financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and created jointly by YPF and the provincial and national governments. It foresaw a new city in A\u00f1elo: 30,000 people would live there, and cinemas, supermarkets, sports centres, planned neighbourhoods, schools, hotels, banks, two health centres and a fire station would be built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With seven years to go until the plan\u2019s target date, little progress has been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adela L\u00f3pez lives there, in one of the 100 houses built by the national and provincial governments to respond to the abrupt population growth. In her newly constructed home, there is a space heater that runs on firewood, while the cooker uses gas from a cylinder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe get too cold here,\u201d says Adela. \u201cThe houses get rained on during storms and water runs down the walls. This winter was harsh: it rained, snowed and got very cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2022, extremely low winter temperatures<\/a> were recorded in Neuqu\u00e9n, with snowfall extending from April to November in the province\u2019s mountainous areas. In A\u00f1elo, snow came in July and August, and low temperatures remained until October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who live there, the only way to cope with cold weather is to buy firewood and gas cylinders. A typical bundle of firewood lasts about 15 days, and a cylinder up to a week. Adela says that, in 2022, demand exceeded the amount of firewood available: \u201cWe all suffered, including the neighbours with children, because there was no firewood. Whatever the municipality had, it was not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is Vaca Muerta,\u201d Adela says, with a gesture of resignation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are standing on the most important gas field and, on the plateau, 70% of the houses have wood-burning cookers and smoky walls,\u201d says Andr\u00e9s Mena, a local shopkeeper. \u201cSomething is not right\u2026 A gas cylinder in Vaca Muerta is more expensive than in Buenos Aires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same housing complex where Adela lives, there are another 60 families. On 1 August last year they moved to illegally occupy a group of houses that remained abandoned and unfinished, after the company in charge withdrew without finishing the works. They have no gas, electricity, water or sewage. Some houses also have no windows or toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are not going to leave, because we have nowhere to go,\u201d says Jimena, who paid as much as US$780 a month in rent before living in this informal neighbourhood. \u201cThe demands of rent are very high, and you have to work to pay the rent and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the occupants here are young families with small children who came to A\u00f1elo in search of work and a new life. On a daily basis, they are joined by others from other provinces \u2013 Santa Cruz, Mendoza, San Juan, northern Argentina. Others come from Chile, and even Colombia. Such is the case of Jimena, who travelled from the northern province of Salta six years ago: \u201cWe heard that there is work in Vaca Muerta, that it is \u2018the new Dubai\u2019, and we came to try it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Jimena, the jobs are there, but there is no formal place to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese houses [that the families occupied] have been vacant for three years,\u201d says Karen, 26. She arrived from Mendoza looking for a new life, and her partner got a job as a waiter in a restaurant. Difficulty in paying the rent was what led them to occupy one of the abandoned buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karen says companies and agents \u201cabuse those of us who come to work: they charge up to 100,000 pesos [US$410] for a room and a bathroom.\u201d The high cost, she points out, is also reflected in the prices of foods, and other basic commodities such as drinking water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Added to this situation is a list of shortages throughout the city, says Mariela, a native of the area. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything. Not even a hospital. And the roads are a disaster,\u201d she complains. \u201cBeing Vaca Muerta, where the gas and oil comes from, we should be at a better level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n About 30 kilometres before reaching A\u00f1elo lies Punta de Sierra, a settlement where some 45 families live. It is also where the entrance road to the Sierras Blancas gas and crude oil processing plant begins. The facility belongs to British multinational Shell, which operates more than 100 wells<\/a> at Vaca Muerta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Locals in this area describe it as a \u201cgrey zone\u201d, as it has not historically been considered part of the municipalities of A\u00f1elo or San Patricio del Cha\u00f1ar, another town 21 kilometres away. With no taxes coming in, it also has no services \u2013 no gas, electricity, drinking water or waste collection. Despite this, some families have lived there for 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve been living here for 13 years,\u201d says Marta Torres, one of the oldest residents, who bought her land several years ago. \u201cI have my house, but I don’t have any basic services, only a doctor in a nearby clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to her, the land belonged to a private owner who later abandoned it. The provincial government decided to take over the land in 2021 in order to begin to formalise the situation of those who live there, but also asked them to pay a tax debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the demands residents have made to the provincial government is a request for access to drinking water \u2013 they only have use of a well, bringing water with a high degree of salinity \u2013 as well as electricity and gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of gas affects their daily lives: bathing or having hot water for other tasks requires heating it in the kitchen with expensive bottled gas, and sourcing cylinders from several kilometres away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is unpleasant to live without gas,\u201d says Marta. \u201cBesides, I can\u2019t use the water heater because the well water is full of scale and breaks our pipes. We heat water to bathe, wash, clean the house, and we buy water bottles that are very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nA forgotten place<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Flames](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/aerial-vaca-muerta-Argentina_anelo-el-paraje-olvidado_DiegoCanut-cover.jpg\")
<\/div>The shale boom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Green-yellow](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/16215314653_c90d0ee101_k.jpg\")
<\/div>\u2018This is Vaca Muerta\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Something is not right\u2026 A gas cylinder in Vaca Muerta is more expensive than in Buenos Aires<\/blockquote>Andr\u00e9s Mena, a shopkeeper in A\u00f1elo<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Large](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/road-truck-vaca-muerta_anelo-el-paraje-olvidado_DiegoCanut.jpg\")
<\/div>In search of the \u2018Argentine Dubai\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t have anything. Not even a hospital. And the roads are a disaster<\/blockquote>Mariela, A\u00f1elo resident<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
No man\u2019s land<\/h2>\n\n\n\n