Sharply weaker oil prices, growing threats to oil demand and the imminent arrival of peak oil demand could unleash a wave of stranded oil assets in South America. Among the most vulnerable is Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play. There were already significant headwinds impacting operations and investment in the shale oil and gas play before the March 2020 price crash and outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising uncertainty sparked by the poor outlook for crude oil coupled with high breakeven costs and rising unease with Peronist Alberto Fernandez winning the presidency weighed on investment in the Vaca Muerta toward the end of 2019. This was amplified by Fernandez’s appointment of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the architect of the nationalization of YPF in 2012, as his vice president. Growing uncertainty surrounding Argentina’s oil industry was further magnified by the country’s latest economic crisis, which saw Buenos Aires default […]