Local residents who oppose fracking near Lake Mari Manuco demonstrate at the reservoir with signs reading “Poison the lake and it poisons you—Water is not negotiable” and “Water for life, not for fracking.” (Photo courtesy of Save Mari Manuco Campaign)
Environmental and social-advocacy groups are denouncing the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, now taking place on the shores of an artificial lake that provides drinking water for nearby communities in Argentina’s Patagonian province of Neuquén. The complaints come amid a major expansion of oil and gas fracking activities in Vaca Muerta, a vast, 30,000-square-kilometer (11,600-square-mile) geological formation that is centered in Neuquén but extends into the provinces of Mendoza, Rio Negro and La Pampa. Vaca Muerta has attracted international energy-industry attention since 2011, when it was classified as one of the biggest shale oil and shale gas deposits in the world by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Fracking operations at Vaca Muerta have driven growth in Argentine hydrocarbon production since 2020, reversing declines that occurred over the previous 15 years as output from conventional oil and gas fields tailed off. Argentine natural gas production in... [Log in to read more]
