US oil baron Harold Hamm sets sights on Javier Milei’s Argentina – Financial Times
US shale oil magnate Harold Hamm is accelerating his overseas expansion, buying more assets in Argentina and unveiling plans to invest up to $200mn a year drilling in the Latin American nation.
Hamm told the Financial Times that Continental Resources had signed a deal to buy non-operating interests in four blocks in the Vaca Muerta oilfields from Pan American Energy, a local producer co-owned by UK oil major BP.
The shale tycoon said the move signalled support for Argentine President Javier Milei, a Donald Trump ally pursuing a radical deregulation agenda. But the move also comes as American shale producers exhaust high-quality drilling locations in the US.
Hamm said: “We like the rock there. And actually, there’s a lot that we like about this new administration. President Milei is trying to do the right thing.”
“He could be on his way to a real turnaround . . . we think it could be a real deal for the country and for our company as well.”
Continental’s new deal follows the family-owned company’s acquisition of assets in the same shale formation in Patagonia from Argentine producer Pluspetrol in November.
US drillers are also hunting for assets in the Middle East, Australia and South America amid signs that a two-decade shale output boom, which made the US the world’s biggest producer, has peaked.
US President Donald Trump has also called on American oil companies to invest in Venezuela following the toppling of the country’s leader over the weekend. Hamm told the FT Continental could consider investing in that country too.
Analysts say weaker oil prices and a shrinking inventory of high-quality drilling areas in Texas’s Permian, the world’s most prolific oilfield, will send US output lower in 2026, after hitting a record high of 13.6mn barrels a day last year.
Andrew Dittmar, analyst at consultancy Enverus, said: “What does remain among the top tier of US drilling opportunities is largely locked up by the majors and large independents and not available to be acquired.”
Continental’s push into Argentina marks a strategic departure for Hamm, who was a pioneer of the US shale revolution, which deployed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unlock vast deposits of oil.
Hamm also successfully lobbied then-president Barack Obama to allow more crude oil exports, a move that accelerated local development. A prominent donor to Trump, Hamm, 80, has helped shape the administration’s policy of promoting fossil fuels over renewable energy.
Vaca Muerta has become a focus for drillers in the past decade with crude production hitting a record 550,000 b/d last year. Chevron reckons oil recovery rates from the area wells are 50 per cent higher than the average in the Permian, although costs are 35 per cent greater.
Hamm said Continental would initially invest $100mn-$200mn a year in its Argentine assets but this could rise. Geopolitics would remain a critical factor, he said, adding he had sat down for “earnest talks” with Milei about his vision for the economy.
Some western companies have balked at investing in Argentina following a decision by former leftwing populist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to expropriate a 51 per cent stake in state oil company YPF held by Spain’s Repsol in 2012.
“As we have seen here in America, one person can do a whole lot to change the overall trajectory of politics,” said Hamm. “I think Milei is one of those. You just get the feel when you meet someone, as I did when I met President Trump, here is someone that cares enough to make a huge difference and a huge sacrifice.”
