Fracking: Oil Development Endangers Water in Northern Patagonia, Argentina

YPF was authorized to drill beneath Lakes Mari Menuco and Los Barreales, which provide drinking water and irrigation to a large region, by decree of the governor of Neuquén. According to official figures, the industry continues its decline. On Thursday, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) released its report on Industrial Capacity Utilization (UCII) for September, which revealed another year-on-year drop. According to the research, the manufacturing industry operated at only 61.1% of its capacity. This figure is 1.1 percentage points lower than that of the same month in 2024. The study was conducted using data from a panel of 600 to 700 manufacturing companies, comparing production for the period with the maximum potential of each sector using its machinery. The largest wells, such as those of Tecpetrol, part of the Techint Group, in Vaca Muerta, use 90 million liters of water per fracturing process, which is equivalent to the volume that would fit in about 3,800 full tanker trucks or what a family would consume in a century and twenty years.