Kick starting Argentina's Vaca Muerta

Argentina’s shale patch is going through its first downturn, but the outlook is still bright. Just don’t expect its shale development to look like progress in the US

"ARE YOU here for the petróleo?", the taxi driver asks as we pull out of Neuquén's Presidente Perón airport and head towards town. The quiet provincial capital of Ar­gentina's Neuquén province has long been a gateway for explorers and tourists to Pata­gonia's natural wonders. That's another way of saying most people didn't have much rea­son to stick around long. Now outsiders are coming - and staying - for a different sort of natural wonder: the oil- and gas- soaked Vaca Muerta shale that sits beneath the re­gion, a huge energy trove that could trans­form Argentina's economy and its place in global energy. Petrodollars have been arriving into this Patagonian outpost, first in a trickle then