Actor map and spaces of legitimacy

If the first simplification about Vaca Muerta was to think of it only as rock, the second was to reduce it to a purely productive chain.

That reading no longer suffices.

At the Observatory we understand the basin as an expanded ecosystem of actors, where value generation depends not only on extraction, but on the interaction between multiple levels of decision, representation, validation and the construction of legitimacy.

At the core sit governments framing the development of operators, service companies, midstream, the SME network, technology suppliers and the critical infrastructure that sustains scale.

But around that core orbit other actors with increasingly decisive weight: regulatory bodies and control agencies, business chambers and sector clusters, the financial system and investors, logistics and housing infrastructure, territorial leadership, unions, academia and technical institutions, applied training spaces, specialised media and local communities.

First ring — Decision-making core and demand driver

Made up of the operators and area holders, responsible for investment, asset development and the planning of production pace.

They determine CapEx, schedules, contracting, safety standards, technical requirements and expansion speed, so their level of activity orders the entire network.

There are around 20 companies: YPF, PAE, Chevron, Shell, Vista, Tecpetrol, TotalEnergies, Pampa Energía, Pluspetrol, Equinor, Exxon, Phoenix, Capex and Harbour, among others.

Second ring — Technical capacity and specialised execution

Brings together more than 100 companies in oilfield services and critical technical supply that make field operations possible: drilling, completion, fracturing, wireline, cementing, equipment maintenance, engineering, automation and technology solutions.

They translate the first ring’s strategy into effective production. Here operational demands are extreme and legitimacy is built less through public visibility than through sustained performance, compliance, safety and responsiveness.

It is one of the spaces where homologation counts for more than discourse.

Third ring — Economic spillover, support and territoriality

Includes the SME and multisector network that sustains operations and captures regional impact: logistics, transport, construction, metalworking, catering, accommodation, software, telecommunications, retail, security, occupational health and auxiliary services.

This is the ring where energy development becomes the territory’s real economy. It is also where the system’s asymmetries are felt most sharply: payment terms, risk concentration, the need for financial backing, dependence on vendor lists and fragility in the face of operational discontinuity.

These companies live with ever-tighter margins, growing competition and structural pressure to sustain scale without losing viability.

Fourth ring — Indirect impact and expanded social life

Corresponds to the fabric of companies and activities receiving the indirect impulse of hydrocarbon activity: hospitality, food service, health, sport, tourism, urban development, education, general retail, urban services and recreation.

Here Vaca Muerta stops being an industry and becomes an urban, cultural and sociological phenomenon. Demographic pressure, housing, rootedness, internal migration, accelerated professionalisation and the transformation of the social fabric appear forcefully at this level.

This is where the basin touches everyday life.

And government?

Government works as a cross-cutting layer of governance, regulation and enablement. It is not another supplier nor an operational actor, but the framework that makes the whole chain viable.

Province, nation and municipalities act simultaneously across all rings through regulatory frameworks, fiscal policy, legal certainty, public infrastructure, concessions, permits, administrative speed, territorial planning, civic training and urban planning.

The well-known phrase “they no longer ask about the rock” finds one of its most concrete expressions here: institutional trust also communicates. And it conditions real investment.

Where actors communicate and get validated

One of this report’s central hypotheses is that communication in Vaca Muerta does not happen in a single space. It occurs across multiple simultaneous validation devices, each with its own rules, timelines and objectives.

Reputation is not built in one channel. It is distributed. And it is verified.

Public, trade-fair and networking spaces. Media, interviews, panels, speakers, institutional agenda, fairs such as AOG, business rounds, stands, hospitality, informal networking, sponsorship and activations. This is where public narrative and discursive legitimacy get built.

Closed validation spaces. Vendor lists, homologations, operator portals, scoring, historical performance, due diligence, compliance and technical and financial traceability. Here legitimacy is not declared: it is demonstrated.

Relational spaces. One-to-one, formal meetings, institutional roundtables, public–private coordination, commercial follow-up and historical ties. In a high-risk industry, trust remains deeply relational.

Knowledge and training spaces. Universities, unions, technical programmes, certifications, the Science and Technology Park, the Vaca Muerta Institute and spaces such as Centro PyME–ADENEU. A decisive part of the future is played out here: the real capacity to sustain scale.

The structural question

Who represents the organisation in each active channel of the system, and to what end?

In a basin where legitimacy is built simultaneously on visibility, track record, capacity and reputation, this question stops being tactical and becomes structural.