Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline

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The Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline, also known by its Spanish name Gasoducto del Noreste Argentino or by its Spanish initials GNEA, is a natural gas pipeline in Argentina.

Location

Starting from a junction with the Juana Azurduy Gas Pipeline in Campo Durán (Salta province), the GNEA pipeline was originally projected to run southeast through Salta and Formosa provinces to the city of Formosa, then turn south to parallel Argentina's national highway 11, passing through Resistencia in Chaco province, briefly jogging southwest between Reconquista and Vera (Santa Fé province), and finally resuming its southward trajectory to Santo Tomé in Santa Fé province.

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Project Details

Santa Fe Sur, Santa Fe Norte and Chaco segments

• Operator: TGN (Transportadora Gas del Norte)
• Owner: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Capacity: 4.09 bcm/y (11.2 MMm³/d)
• Length: 694 km
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2019

Formosa Este segment

• Operator: TGN (Transportadora Gas del Norte)
• Owner: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Capacity: 4.09 bcm/y (11.2 MMm³/d)
• Length: 280 km
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Operating
• Start Year:

Salta and Formosa Oeste segments

• Operator: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Owner: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Proposed capacity: 4.09 bcm/y (11.2 MMm³/d)
• Length: 533 km
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Shelved
• Start Year:

Background

As originally conceived, the Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline was designed to import natural gas from Bolivia to northeastern Argentina. However, in recent years it has been re-envisioned as a conduit to transport Argentine gas from Vaca Muerta to domestic customers in northern Argentina, and to potentially facilitate Argentine gas exports to neighboring countries.

The project was announced in 2003, with construction scheduled to start in 2007, and the pipeline scheduled to go online in 2010. Over the next two decades, the GNEA project was plagued by repeated delays and cost overruns, and the pipeline remained only partially finished as of 2025.

Ownership

Since its inception, the GNEA project has been owned by Enarsa (Energía Argentina SA), the Argentine state-owned company formerly known as IEASA (Integración Energética Sociedad Anónima). As of August 2025, the Argentine government was discussing plans to privatize all or part of the pipeline.

Capacity

Initial estimates called for the pipeline to have a capacity of 20 million cubic meters per day (20 MMm³/d), expandable to 30 MMm³/d; however, more recent reports have placed the capacity at 11.2 MMm³/d.

Construction

Construction of the pipeline finally got underway in February 2015, and as of September 2017, the project was reportedly 90% complete. A May 2017 news report indicated that Enarsa might complete construction of the pipeline's last unfinished section, spanning the border between Salta and Formosa provinces, by December 2017 or January 2018. At the same time Enarsa's President Hugo Balboa stated that the company could not guarantee operation of the pipeline in the future due to insufficient demand in the provinces of Formosa and Chaco, Argentina.

In September 2018 the Argentine government announced that the scope of the pipeline had been scaled back to include only the southern segment running from Santo Tomé (Santa Fe province) to the Bermejo River (Chaco province). Among the government's stated reasons for scaling back the project were financial irregularities that occurred during the administration of President Cristina Kirchner, and the possibility of supplying gas from Argentina's Vaca Muerta field, which would reduce the need to import gas from Bolivia.

Segments

The main line, measuring just over 1500 kilometers in length, was to be divided into six primary segments, named after the four provinces along the pipeline's route. From north to south, the segments were as follows:

• Salta: 230 kilometers
• Formosa Oeste: 303 kilometers
• Formosa Este: 280 kilometers
• Chaco: 215 kilometers
• Santa Fe Norte: 215 kilometers
• Santa Fe Sur: 264 kilometers

Operating southern segments (Santa Fe Sur, Santa Fe Norte and Chaco)

In July 2019 , the Argentine government awarded TGN (Transportadora de Gas del Norte) the right to operate the completed sections of the pipeline in Santa Fe and Chaco provinces for a period of 10 years. The cost of building the pipeline was reported at US2.3 billion, nearly double early estimates.

In October 2019, media sources announced that the pipeline had begun supplying 3000 homes in San Cristóbal, Santa Fe province, with 25 additional communities in the province scheduled to be connected.

TGN's main pipeline through the two provinces was reported to have a diameter of 24 inches (610 mm) and a length of 694 km, with 4- to 10-inch branches extending its scope to roughly 1000 km.

Operating northern segment (Formosa Este)

In a February 2020 meeting with Formosa province governor Gildo Insfrán, Argentina's Secretary of Energy Sergio Lanziani emphasized the importance of completing remaining sections of the pipeline for the economic growth of Argentina's Northeast region.

In February 2022, Argentina's Minister of Energy Darío Martínez announced that the government would hold a tender for completion of the unfinished sections of pipeline along the border between Salta and Formosa provinces. Martínez originally called for the tender to take place in March 2022, but the date was subsequently pushed back to September 2022.

In July 2022, workers soldered together two sections of pipe in the community of General Mansilla, on the border between Chaco and Formosa provinces, paving the way for gas to flow north from the already operating southern segments of the GNEA system. Gas transport in Formosa province was initially expected to be limited to the 100 km of pipeline between the Río Bermejo (provincial border) and the capital city of Formosa.

As of July 2024, Enarsa's website stated that a segment of the GNEA pipeline in Formosa province had been placed into service in 2024. Enarsa did not clearly indicate which section of the pipeline was operational, and what date it had been commissioned. However, other sources including pipeline operator TGN confirmed the operational status of the segment extending from the Chaco-Formosa provincial border to the city of Formosa, and TGN's 2024 sustainability report showed operational sections of pipeline running south and west from the city of Formosa, apparently coinciding with the 280-kilometer Formosa Este segment originally described in 2017.

As of mid-2024, the most recent edition of the Argentine government's official pipelines map did not show any operational segment of the GNEA in Formosa province. However, subsequent editions of the map released in October 2024 and June 2025 clearly reflected the existence of a pipeline running north from the Chaco-Formosa border to the provincial capital of Formosa.

In June 2024, Enarsa launched a public tender for the right to operate and maintain the GNEA within Formosa province, from the Formosa-Salta provincial border to the Formosa-Chaco provincial border. Bids were to be accepted until July 25, 2024.

Shelved northern segments (Salta and Formosa Oeste)

The GNEA pipeline was originally designed to facilitate imports of Bolivian gas through northern Argentina, with its northernmost two segments (Salta and Formosa Oeste) running several hundred kilometers through the provinces of Salta and Formosa, roughly parallel to the Argentina-Paraguay border.

As recently as May 2017, Enarsa appeared committed to completing construction of these segments, announcing that it would reassume responsibility for the unfinished section in Salta and Formosa provinces that had originally been contracted out to Servicios Vertúa SA. However, in 2018 the government announced that this northern section would not be completed, due to financial irregularities and economic constraints. The decision to abandon this northern section has been bolstered in recent years by a precipitous decline in Bolivian gas exports that further threatened the project's viability.

As recently as March 2022, the northernmost section of pipeline between Campo Durán (Salta province) and Formosa (Formosa province) appeared as an unfinished future project on Enarsa's official maps; however, it has completely disappeared from more recent maps. Despite sporadic subsequent initiatives advocating for construction of the missing segments, the section of the pipeline linking Salta and Formosa provinces remained unfinished as of September 2025 and was presumed to be shelved.

Possible revival of shelved northern segment as export route to Paraguay and Brazil

In June 2024, the Argentine government was reportedly reconsidering plans to extend the GNEA northward from its terminus in Formosa province to the proposed Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil gas pipeline, as a means of exporting fossil gas from Vaca Muerta to Brazil. As of August 2025, Enarsa's president confirmed that the government was still looking at possible repurposing and extension of the GNEA pipeline to facilitate Argentine gas exports to neighboring countries.

Cancelled extension to Corrientes and Misiones provinces

Government plans originally called for the GNEA pipeline to be extended northeast into the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones. However, the Corrientes-Misiones extension project was officially cancelled in September 2018, and subsequent news reports make it clear that plans for any such extension have been definitively abandoned.

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on the Northeast Argentino Gas Pipeline (GASENE). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].