4) Argentina

Rufous Hornero

Technically recoverable shale oil: 27 billion barrels
Prime prospect locations: Neuquên and Chaco Basins
Current oil production (bpd): 735,000
Current gas production (tcf): 1.37

Argentina is both the largest producer and consumer of natural gas in South America and the second largest electricity consumer after Brazil. Despite an increasingly energy-hungry population, Argentina is still a net exporter of oil with 81 per cent of its products destined for partners in the Americas and the remaining 19 per cent to China.

If the country’s technically recoverable shale oil is exploited to its fullest extent, the South American nation could be come a world player in the oil market, with larger stocks than China, Qatar, Brazil ad the United States.

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