US Offers Argentina Up to US$7 Billion for a Gas and Minerals Corridor
Argentina's oil, gas and minerals sit far from the sea. The new US-backed Andes-Atlantic Corridor offers up to US$7 billion in export credit through 2027, but most is a non-binding line for one LNG project. The post US Offers Argentina Up to US$7 Billion for a Gas and Minerals Corridor appeared first on The Rio Times .
The US and Argentina have launched the Andes-Atlantic Corridor , a plan to link inland oil, gas and mineral fields to the sea. It comes with a headline figure of up to US$7 billion in US financing through 2027.
That figure is a ceiling, not a transfer. Most of it is one indicative credit line for a gas-export project its owners have not yet approved.
Argentina’s foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, and the US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, presented the plan on Wednesday 23 September. They met at the Argentine consulate in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
They signed on behalf of Presidents Javier Milei and Donald Trump. Their joint statement says the corridor will modernise the links between Argentina’s main industries and Atlantic ports.
The corridor sits under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. That is a Group of Seven (G7) scheme for infrastructure in partner countries.
The others include the India, Middle East, Europe Economic Corridor, the Lobito Corridor in southern Africa and the Luzon Economic Corridor in the Philippines. The G7 launched the partnership in 2022, and it is widely seen as a counter to China’s overseas infrastructure lending.
The money is not a fund or a single loan. It rests on a “Build the Future Framework” Argentina signed with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), Washington’s export-credit agency.
EXIM lends to foreign buyers so they can purchase American goods and services. Under the framework it may finance up to US$7 billion of qualifying projects through 2027.
Two other agencies are named as possible backers. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) lends and invests abroad; the US Trade and Development Agency funds feasibility studies.
Quirno told Infobae that EXIM “finances American suppliers” working on Argentine projects. The country itself, he said, “does not need financing as a country.”
About US$6 billion of the total is earmarked for Argentina LNG. The project would chill gas from Vaca Muerta into liquid for export by ship.
It is led by the state-controlled oil company YPF with Italy’s Eni and XRG, an investment arm of the United Arab Emirates. Its lifetime cost is put at US$51 billion, which Infobae calls Argentina’s largest announced investment.
EXIM has issued a non-binding indicative term sheet for that US$6 billion, according to the trade publication BNamericas. In plain terms, it is a written offer of terms, not a signed loan.
The money would pay for US equipment and contractors. McDermott holds a contract for a gas-processing plant, and Pumpco, part of MasTec, has a pipeline contract that BNamericas values at more than US$1 billion.
YPF expects to take its final investment decision in the last quarter of 2026, BNamericas reports. The design calls for two floating liquefaction vessels off Río Negro province, able to export 12 million tonnes a year.
The transport side of the Andes-Atlantic Corridor leans on concessions Argentina had already begun. In August the government put three freight lines out to tender for 50 years: the Belgrano, San Martín and Urquiza railways.
Together they cover 7,594 kilometres of track. Bids are due on Wednesday 11 November, according to BNamericas, and US firms may compete as bidders or subcontractors.
Argentina is also studying new rail links from Vaca Muerta to Bahía Blanca, a deep-water port in southern Buenos Aires province. No amounts have been given for them.
The statement also mentions the Paraná, Paraguay river waterway, known as the Hidrovía, whose 25-year concession went to a Belgian-Argentine group in June. A new high-voltage line for Buenos Aires, called AMBA I, is listed too.
The corridor is pitched as a way to move lithium and copper from the northwest provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca. Yet the joint statement names no mining project.
It says both sides will look for deals under the US, Argentina critical minerals framework signed in February. Argentina’s Congress has yet to ratify it, according to Mining.com.
BNamericas reports that a US delegation plans to visit Jujuy and Salta in October. That trip may show where the first mining deals come from.
Investors will also lean on RIGI, Argentina’s large-investment regime, launched in July 2024. It freezes tax, customs and currency rules for projects of at least US$200 million.
A digital strand covers fibre-optic networks, undersea cables and customs-scanning equipment. It ties back to the reciprocal trade agreement signed in February, which Washington has pressed Argentina to ratify in Congress .
The first real test is Argentina LNG’s final investment decision, which YPF expects before the end of 2026. Only then could the EXIM offer turn into a signed loan.
The second is the rail tender on 11 November. It will show whether American firms actually bid, or leave the field to others such as Grupo México, which has shown interest.
What the launch does not mean is also clear. Washington has not handed Argentina US$7 billion, and the Andes-Atlantic Corridor creates no new fund and no immediate disbursement.
Some Argentine reports called the money already committed. Yet the official text only says the United States will “promote” financing tools.
For the expat angle, see Investment-Grade Talk and a US$7 Billion Energy Package: What Argentina’s New York Week Means for Expats .
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