Vega Pléyade Gas Pipeline

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Vega Pléyade Gas Pipeline, known locally as Gasoducto Vega Pléyade, is an operating gas pipeline running from the Vega Pléyade offshore gas and condensate field to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Location

The pipeline starts at the Vega Pléyade offshore platform and runs to the Rio Cullen and Cañadón Alfa onshore treatment facilities in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

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Project Details

• Operator: Total Austral
• Parent company: Total (37.5%), Wintershall Energía (37.5%), Pan American Energy (25%)
• Capacity: 3.65 bcm/y (10 million m³ per day)
• Length: 77 km / 48 miles
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2016
• Associated infrastructure:
  • Vega Pléyade Oil and Gas Field
  • San Martín Gas Pipeline

Background

Operated by Total and owned jointly by Total, Wintershall Energía and Pan American Energy, the Vega Pléyade project was launched in 2013 to develop the natural gas and condensate fields of the Cuenca Marina Austral 1 (CMA-1) concession, 20 kilometers east of Bahía San Sebastián in the Argentine Sea off the coast of Tierra del Fuego.

The project comprises a wellhead platform in 50 meters of water linked to to Total-operated gas processing facilities at Rio Cullen and Cañadón Alfa on the Argentine mainland by a 77-kilometer, 10-million-cubic-meter-per-day pipeline. From Cañadón Alfa, the gas is injected into the San Martín Gas Pipeline and transported 3000 km north to customers in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

Vega Pléyade is the world's southernmost natural gas project. The field lies 2,900 km south of Buenos Aires, in raging seas buffeted by strong currents and winds of up to 180 km/hour, with winter temperatures dropping as low as -20°C.

Construction of the offshore platform and pipeline was completed in two and a half years. The pipeline began transporting natural gas in February 2016 and was officially inaugurated in June 2017 by Argentina's Minister of Energy, accompanied by officials from Total, Wintershall and Pan American Energy.

Within its first year of operation, Vega Pléyade was already producing 7% of the country's natural gas supply, making Tierra del Fuego Argentina's second leading gas-producing province after Neuquén. By 2018, Vega Pléyade had raised its share of national production to 8% and had increased natural gas output from Tierra del Fuego by 33%.

As of July 2020, gas production at Vega Pléyade was temporarily suspended due to Argentina's economic crisis and falling gas prices. However, by 2022 production had resumed, and the Total-Wintershall-Pan American Energy consortium was contemplating expanded gas production from the Austral basin through a new initative known as Proyecto Fénix. In September 2022, TotalEnergies confirmed its final investment decision on the 35-kilometer Fénix gas pipeline, designed to transport gas from the Fénix gas field to the Vega Pléyade platform starting in 2025.