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(Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp. and Shell Plc are in talks to join Argentina’s signature project to ramp up crude exports from its booming shale patch, according to people familiar the matter.

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Chevron and Shell, which both have assets in the Vaca Muerta formation, are negotiating with a consortium of drillers spearheaded by state-run YPF SA to have equity stakes in the roughly $3 billion plan to build a cross-country pipeline and Atlantic port, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing private deliberations. 

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Chevron and Shell both declined to comment. 

Should Chevron and Shell partner in the venture, it would be a sign that the Vaca Muerta can attract more foreign oil and gas investments. So far, Argentine President Javier Milei has largely struggled to convince multinational corporations to bring capital to Argentina despite passing a series of pro-business reforms. That’s mainly because of currency and capital controls his government inherited and hasn’t yet dismantled. 

The YPF-led project, called Vaca Muerta Sur, already has buy-in from drillers Pan American Energy Group, which is owned 50% by BP Plc, as well as Pampa Energia SA and Vista Energy. It would pipe half a million barrels a day of crude in late 2027 to a floating export terminal. That’s about the same as current oil transport capacity out of Argentina’s Patagonian shale region.

The consortium is trying to get a group of international banks to finance most of the investment at a time when Milei’s administration is opening up access to global credit. The partners expect to put down 30% of the money. 

Among his reforms, Milei is providing 30-year exemptions to any currency restrictions and tax breaks enshrined in law. Vaca Muerta Sur is one of the first applicants to the program known in Spanish as RIGI. 

Meanwhile, steel company Tenaris SA has already said that it will start delivering pipes early next year.

Growth in the Vaca Muerta is helping Argentina to get back near its record oil and gas production of some 20 years ago. That’s spurring not only the shale oil export project, but deals to pipe natural gas to Brazil and plans to liquefiy and ship the fuel to Europe and Asia.

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