From six o’clock in the evening onward, the Patagonian cold intensifies, and the relentless wind threatens to throw you off balance with every step. It is the same historic wind that has swept across the sweeping expanses of the Neuquén plateau for centuries—the very gusts that for decades defined Añelo as little more than a quiet, remote town deep in Patagonia, known primarily for small-scale farms, livestock grazing, and seasonal agriculture.
For generations, nothing in that austere landscape foreshadowed the endless, deafening caravans of heavy trucks now thundering along Provincial Route 7. Laden with sand, industrial pipes, and massive drilling equipment, these vehicles drive day and night toward the sprawling oilfields that have transformed the region entirely.
Deep beneath the surface of the town lies the crown jewel of the Neuquén Basin: Vaca Muerta. This massive unconventional oil and gas formation has rapidly evolved into Argentina’s primary economic engine and its most reliable source of foreign currency. According to mid-year data, production has surpassed 915,000 barrels of oil per day, with output steadily climbing and expected to approach the coveted one-million-barrel mark before the year draws to a close.
Extraction rates have surged by 26.4% compared to the previous year. Driven by this unprecedented momentum, crude oil export sales totaled $5.722 billion between January and July, marking a staggering 59.2% increase from the same period recorded in 2025.
Yet, right in the middle of the vast Neuquén desert, at the absolute heart of Vaca Muerta, lies a municipality grappling with the stark contradictions of explosive economic development. Packs of stray dogs roam the dusty streets, serving as a reminder of the town’s humble roots, while enormous urban potential remains largely untapped. As recently as 2023, paved roads covered a meager 12 blocks across the entire town. However, a sweeping paving initiative launched in 2024 expanded that figure to 12,280 meters by 2025, with another 5,000 meters scheduled for completion by late 2026.
Parts of Añelo still lack comprehensive sewage networks and residential natural gas connections. Even so, vital public works are advancing rapidly under a targeted urbanization master plan developed jointly with the major energy corporations operating directly within the formation.
Mayor Fernando Banderet insists that the municipality is undergoing a fundamental transformation and that Añelo will look entirely different within the next three years. The ongoing slate of construction projects is intended to prove him right. Preparations are well underway for a modern water treatment plant, the municipal sewage network is steadily expanding, and private-sector investments feature ambitious blueprints. These include two major shopping centers—one of which will house an indoor private school—alongside a scenic riverside recreational boardwalk, a five-star hotel featuring a striking facade modeled directly on the United States White House, as well as new hospitals, schools, and judicial buildings.
“By 2030, around 50,000 residents will live in the city,” Banderet asserts, capturing the forward-looking ambition driving local leadership.
Naturally, this rapid transformation sparks an inevitable question for workers across the country: Is moving to Añelo in search of employment truly worth it? Journalists from the Herald’s sister publication, Ámbito, recently toured the municipality to investigate the realities behind the headlines and find an answer.
Unprecedented Growth and Migration
Today, Añelo presents itself as a landscape of extraordinary opportunity, but strictly for those who arrive equipped with a certified trade, a specialized profession directly tied to the hydrocarbon sector—or related fields like industrial construction—or a robust business venture designed to yield returns over the medium to long term.
Conversely, arriving on a whim with a family and no concrete plan is becoming increasingly precarious by the day. This is partly due to the sheer volume of job seekers who have already made the journey and, paradoxically, because of the essential infrastructure that still has yet to be built.
Official demographic figures help explain the magnitude of this shift. The department encompassing the town experienced a staggering population growth of 68.4%, surging from 10,786 inhabitants in 2010 to 18,166 in 2022, representing the largest proportional increase anywhere in the province. Within the town limits, the population climbed from 6,477 to more than 12,000 permanent residents, while a daily transient population of roughly 30,000 people flows through for work.
Furthermore, a comprehensive report titled “Vaca Muerta: Employment, Migration, and Infrastructure Works,” published in September by the Neuquén Association of Chemical, Petrochemical, and Related Companies (QPQ), indicates that the province as a whole grew by 28.9% over the same intercensal period. The provincial population rose from 551,266 to 710,814 inhabitants, vastly outpacing the national average growth rate of 15.24%. Consequently, Neuquén now stands as Argentina’s second-fastest-growing province, trailing only Tierra del Fuego.
High Demand for Skilled Labor
Just a few kilometers outside the urban center of Añelo, Ámbito toured Loma Campana, the legendary oilfield that successfully converted Vaca Muerta from a promising geological theory into a massive productive reality. Operated jointly by the majority state-owned energy company YPF in partnership with U.S. oil giant Chevron since 2013, Loma Campana was the first large-scale shale oil development established outside of North America. It has since cemented its status as one of Vaca Muerta’s premier assets, accounting for nearly 12% of all crude oil extracted nationwide.
Advanced technology accounts for the vast majority of this impressive output. Wells are drilled in an unconventional L shape, featuring horizontal lateral branches that extend more than 4,000 meters, resulting in a total drilled length exceeding 7,300 meters, executed across three distinct phases.
The entire extraction process relies heavily on geosteering, a sophisticated computer system that adjusts the trajectory of the drill bit in real time. The broader industrial chain encompasses complex stages including drilling, well completion, production, treatment, local sales, and international export.
That high level of technical sophistication dictates precisely who can find employment in the fields. Mayor Banderet describes a labor market characterized by a demand that stands out not only for its sheer scale, but above all for the rigorous technical proficiencies required.
“In oil operations, you need professionals with a verified technical degree. And if they have hands-on experience, even better,” Banderet notes. “Young technicians can find a truly great opportunity here.”
Outside the core energy industry itself, the list of highly sought-after workers continues to expand. “You need welders, machinery operators, heavy transport drivers, crane and boom truck operators, grinders, and pipefitters. There is a wide range of roles depending on the specific trade,” Banderet explains, adding that private construction companies are perpetually searching for masons, carpenters, and ironworkers.
Beyond heavy industry, the region faces acute shortages in basic urban and commercial services. “We need tire repair technicians for the local shops, who always experience high turnover because they simply cannot find enough people. We also need mechanics, auto electricians, and lathe operators,” the mayor adds.
Remarkably, shortages extend into unexpected consumer niches. There is a severe deficit of wellness professionals, such as Pilates instructors—one local hotel currently employs just a single instructor working with only three exercise mats. Personal care services are similarly stretched thin; the town features only one pedicurist who must travel regularly from nearby Cipolletti to service clients, alongside a scarcity of manicurists.
Limited Services and High Costs
Enrique García, owner of the Sol y Luna shop and president of the Añelo Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Production, and Related Sectors, offers a much more granular picture of the missing commercial services, drawing on his dual perspective as both a business owner and a long-term resident.
There is currently only a single glass shop in town, and its operational capabilities are severely limited: it cannot source specialized glass or Blindex tempered safety security glass. While there is a locksmith available, handles only residential doors, meaning a modern coded car key cannot be manufactured anywhere within town limits. Furthermore, there are no custom gutter fabrication shops; local building supply stores sell only prefabricated, standardized gutters, leaving no option for custom orders.
Naturally, commercial opportunities in a booming frontier town come with an extraordinarily high cost of entry. According to García, monthly rent for a commercial retail space can easily exceed $1,319.
He also highlights the staggering cost of utilities, providing examples of monthly electricity bills across different commercial sectors: a small gift shop might pay up to $395 per month; a medium-sized minimarket around $6,597; and a standard neighborhood kiosk like his own roughly $791.
Major Energy Projects Fueling the Economy
What continues to draw waves of hopeful workers to Añelo is the massive pipeline of energy infrastructure projects serving as the region’s primary economic engine.
Among the major construction works detailed in the QPQ report is the 437-kilometer Vaca Muerta Sur (VMOS) oil pipeline. By mid-2026, the project had already reached more than 50% completion, generating approximately 10,000 jobs in the process.
Other notable initiatives include Techint’s Duplicar Norte project, which required a workforce of 850 people during the first quarter of 2026, and the Tratayén–Río Negro coast gas pipeline, a two-year venture creating around 1,500 jobs.
Meanwhile, the 472-kilometer Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline—spearheaded by the Italian private firm SICIM alongside Víctor Contreras—officially kicked off in mid-2026 with a 24-month timeline and roughly 1,500 direct jobs attached to its construction.
Pampa Energía’s Rincón de Aranda project represents a monumental investment of $4.522 billion, encompassing 259 active wells and a dedicated treatment plant capable of handling 44,000 barrels per day.
Looking toward upcoming developments, YPF’s Integrated Gas Treatment Plant represents a $7 billion investment scheduled to break ground in 2027, with employment peaking at an estimated 4,500 jobs.
Atop all of these sits Argentina LNG, a transformative project also led by YPF that is actively reshaping the region’s entire economic scale. Valued at $51 billion, construction is scheduled between 2026 and 2030, generating an average of 20,000 jobs annually. Employment is projected to peak at 40,000 positions during its third year of construction, eventually settling into roughly 8,000 permanent operational positions once the facility comes online in 2031.
High Rents and the Housing Deficit
Drawn by the promise of these lucrative job opportunities, interprovincial migration generated a net influx of 44,810 people to the region between 2020 and 2026.
To accommodate this transit, the Aeroparque–Neuquén air route now operates 52 weekly flights—amounting to more than 200 flights per month—while Aerolíneas Argentinas has established a dedicated corporate route connecting Rosario in Santa Fe province directly with Neuquén.
However, the QPQ report identifies one critical bottleneck across the entire economic chain, explaining why strong employment figures do not necessarily translate into stable long-term settlement in Añelo: rental prices in Neuquén surged by 140% year-over-year, while local incomes increased by an average of 70%.
“Housing and fundamental service infrastructure are simply not growing at the pace of labor migration,” the QPQ report notes.
The local urban landscape remains heavily defined by housing units provided by the municipality through targeted loans from the Bank of the Province of Neuquén (BPN), featuring manageable monthly installments of around $131, alongside residential land plots sold with monthly payments of $79. Additionally, prefabricated modular homes imported from China have arrived, offering small, modern, transportable units delivered on a turnkey basis.
Yet, land acquisitions today increasingly reflect corporate real estate investment strategies rather than families relocating to settle down, boasting annual returns of around 10% in U.S. dollars.
For property owners, residential rentals in Añelo rank among the most profitable investments in the country. Data compiled from major Argentine real estate portals—including Zonaprop, Argenprop, Properati, and iCasas—indicates that renting a modest two-room apartment in Añelo costs between $989 and $1,319 per month.
Local wages, while elevated compared to the national average, do not always comfortably keep pace with these costs. Figures reviewed by Ámbito show that a worker in oilfield construction can earn between $990 and $1,450 per two-week pay period. A heavy truck driver commands between $2,640 and $2,970 per month, while a specialized oil worker earns between $2,970 and $5,940. Meanwhile, permanent local shopkeepers or taxi drivers earn roughly $990 to $1,190 per month.
Against this backdrop, the structural housing deficit in the area hovers stubbornly around 60%.
Gino Zavanella, director of real estate developer ZLT and creator of the region’s first private industrial park, emphasized the critical steps required to overcome these hurdles.
“For families to relocate successfully, economic development must be accompanied by proper education, healthcare, robust service hubs, and adequate recreation. That is the town’s primary growth challenge,” Zavanella stated.
“As these essential amenities take shape, conditions will significantly improve for families to settle permanently in Añelo, which remains the shared goal of both the municipal government and the operating energy companies.”
