Compañía Mega Completes $260M Fractionation Train in Bahía Blanca, Plans Additional $360M Under RIGI

The new fractionation unit raises Mega’s processing capacity from 1.8 million cubic meters per day to over 2.7 million cubic meters, representing a nearly 50 percent increase in wet gas handling from Neuquén province. The facility separates ethane, propane, butane and naphtha from natural gas liquids arriving via the company’s proprietary 600-kilometer pipeline linking the Neuquén Basin to the Buenos Aires coast. Ethane produced at the plant feeds directly into Petroquímica Bahía Blanca’s operations through dedicated ducting, while other fractions move to export or domestic markets. The expansion adds approximately 200,000 tonnes annually to Mega’s LPG and naphtha export program.

CEO Tomás Córdoba confirmed that the second investment tranche of $360 million has secured approval under the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones, providing 30-year regulatory and fiscal stability for infrastructure improvements across Neuquén, Río Negro, La Pampa and Buenos Aires provinces. The scope includes two new pumping stations, plant expansions and operational efficiency upgrades designed to lift total company output by roughly 27 percent. Córdoba stated the RIGI framework delivered essential predictability for long-horizon capital allocation in a historically volatile policy environment.

Compañía Mega operates as a joint venture with YPF holding 38 percent, Petrobras 34 percent and Dow 28 percent. The company processes approximately 40 percent of all natural gas produced in the Neuquén Basin and ranks as Argentina’s largest exporter of LPG and natural gasoline, while serving as the primary ethane supplier to domestic petrochemical operations. The combined $650 million capital program running through 2028 targets absorption of rising unconventional gas volumes, which now represent over 60 percent of national production according to the Argentine Oil and Gas Institute.

The timing aligns with structural shifts in Argentina’s energy sector, where decades of conventional decline are reversing through Vaca Muerta development. Historical downstream constraints forced gas reinjection or flaring when separation and export infrastructure lagged wellhead output. Mega’s coastal fractionation complex addresses this mismatch by enabling monetization of natural gas liquids that previously lacked processing pathways. The project contractor AESA delivered the expansion under an engineering, procurement and construction contract designed to match projected Neuquén Basin growth trajectories. With the RIGI-backed phase, Mega extends logistical reach to handle incremental liquid volumes as upstream drilling accelerates.