Overview
- The Executive published Decree 590/2026 on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, instructing the Secretaría de Energía to prepare bidding terms and call a Concurso Público Internacional for the offshore block CAN_200 in the Cuenca Argentina Norte.
- CAN_200 covers roughly 5,000 square kilometers on the Argentine continental shelf and the tender was triggered by a formal manifestation of interest submitted on February 14, 2025 by Challenger Energy Group PLC.
- The decree allows inclusion of arbitration clauses referring disputes to tribunals in states party to the New York Convention while expressly preserving Argentina’s immunity of execution over specific sovereign assets such as BCRA reserves, public-domain goods and military and cultural property.
- The Secretaría de Energía is delegated to draft the pliego de bases y condiciones, run the contest, grant the exploration permit and, if warranted, award an exploitation concession with royalties to be set in the bidding terms; the interested company is not guaranteed the award.
- The move builds on Argentina’s 2016 continental-shelf recognition and a 2018 offshore round and could attract major offshore players, though any drilling or large investments will depend on geophysical work and may take four to ten years while local environmental and geopolitical sensitivities continue to shape the process.